Surimi: A high demand Seafood and its cryoprotection

Surimi is a wet frozen concentrate of myofibrillar proteins of fish muscle and is stabilized by mixing with cryoprotectants. It serves as a convenient raw material for the manufacture of various comminuted fish products and a variety of fabricated products such as shell fish analogues. Cryoprotectants like sucrose and sorbitol are more commonly used in surimi and one of the major constraints associated with the utilization of surimi is the high content of these sugars used to prevent protein denaturation during frozen storage. This can impart considerable sweetish taste to any surimi-based products making them unacceptable to most consumers and thus causing constraints in introducing surimi or surimi-based products in the domestic markets of many countries. However studies have shown that the concentration of sugar in surimi could be substantially reduced in the tropical species without affecting its stability. Present study was aimed at optimizing the cryoprotectant level in surimi from a tropical fish.