Mechanical characterization and establishment of its model for crunchiness of surimi gels

Abstract: Surimi gels, one of the deeply processed aquatic products, have received wide attention due to their unique texture and high nutrition. Surimi gels with less MTGase show soft and elastic mechanical properties, while the textural properties of surimi gels are transferred from elastico-viscous body to elastico-crispy body if surimi was set with much MTGase at a low temperature for a long time owing to the excessive cross-links. When excessively cross-linked, surimi gels become easier to be broken and show "fracture properties", also called "crunchiness" or "brittleness". Sensory evaluation is the most commonly used method for evaluating food brittleness. However, sensory sensations can be affected by some instable factors such as preference, mood and health of panelists. Therefore, it is necessary to focus on the instrument measurement to evaluate the crunchiness. In this paper, frozen fresh-water surimi (AAA grade) was used as material. Surimi gels with different crunchiness were produced under different setting time and MTGase addition. Uniaxial compression test, three-point bending test and puncture test were used to realize a mechanical characterization of the sensory crunchiness of surimi gels with different cross-linking extent. It was found that surimi gels with different cross-linking extents showed different mouth feel, and the sensory score of crunchiness of surimi gels increased with the cross-linking extent. Moreover, when the cross-linking extent was less than 30%, surimi gel was not crunchy, while when the cross-linking extent was more than 30%, crunchiness appeared and increased significantly as cross-linking extent increased. When the cross-linking extent was over 75%, the sensory crunchiness did not increase significantly anymore. In uniaxial compression test, surimi gels with lower cross-linking extent (<30%) could not be broken. With the increase of cross-linking extent, the fracture stress, compression constant, initial cutting coefficient and Young's modulus all increased. In three-point bending test, the brittle fracture stress and elasticity modulus increased first and then decreased, reaching the maximum at 50% cross-linking extent. When the cross-linking extent was less than 30%, the fracture work showed an increasing trend, while when the cross-linking extent was over 30%, the fracture work decreased with the increasing of crunchiness. In puncture test, the deformation of surimi gels did not show obvious change regulation. Additionally, the breaking force, rising slope and decreasing slope increased as cross-linking extent increased. Multiple regression analysis was applied to model the sensory crunchiness by mechanical indices of surimi gels with the cross-linking extent of 30%-75.5%. It was showed that the sensory crunchiness of surimi gels could be characterized by breaking force, fracture work, fracture stress, compression constant and initial cutting coefficient. The crunchiness characterization equation was obtained, which was proved to be accurate and precise, and there was no significant difference between the predicted and measured values of surimi gels crunchiness (P>0.05). The research provides new ideas and methods for the evaluation of the surimi gel products.