Fish meat emulsion was prepared from egg-white, very low lipid sardine meat, salad oil, and vinegar. Its flow property was investigated in relation to coalescence. The peak stresses at O, about 10, and 200 s~1 (Pl, P2, P3) represented the shape of the flow curve. During the initial 7 days, an increase in Pl and P3 was observed in the conventional emulsion composed of egg-white, salad oil and vinegar. An increase in P1 and P2 was observed in fish meat emulsion and in the fish meat matrix including egg-white and vinegar. The P1 increase was ascribed to the properties of the egg-white. During this storage period of fish meat emulsion, coalescence proceeded slowly. On and after 10 days, the P1 increased in the conventional emulsion, but it decreased in fish meat emulsion and in the fish meat matrix. The P1 decrease was ascribed to the properties of the fish meat. This Pl decrease was accompanied by rapid progress of the coalescence. The coalescence development depended on the change in ovalbumin at the interface and the flow property of the fish meat matrix.Keywords: fish meat emulslon, egg-white, flow property, coalescence, yield stress Nutritional substances are richly contained in sardine meat. In our previous study (Nakayama et al., 1992), a new fish meat emulsion was produced from sardine meat preparation with very low lipid content. The effect of egg-yolk or egg-white addition on the flow property of the new fish meat emulsion was investigated (Nakayama et a/, 1993a). When egg-yolk was used as an emulsifier, the fish meat emulsion was stable in a shear application and also during storage. When egg-white was used as an emulsifier, a shear-unstable emulsion with large yield stress was formed, and the yield stress was further increased during storage.In this study, the relationship between the coalescence development and the change in yield stress was pursued from the viewpoint of ingredient combination. The emulsion is composed of dlspersed and continuous phases. The change in adsorbed ovalbumin around the oil droplets will be related to the fiow property of the emulsion and the coalescence of the dispersed oil phase. The continuous phase contained sardine meat and vinegar. The role and effect of the continuous phase were important in relation to the consistency of the fish meat emulslon and the interaction with the emulsifier ovalbumin molecules. Therefore, to clarify the relationship between the coalescence and the fiow property, a non-fish conventional emulsion and a non-oil fish meat matrix were investigated for comparison with the fish meat emulsion including all ingredients. A discussion of this study was done to depict the structure of the fish meat emulsion and examine the cause of the instability of the egg-white added to the fish meat emulslon.
