Suppression of proteolysis of North Pacific krill <i>Euphausia pacifica</i> meat during protein recovery process to improve the thermal gel-forming ability of the recovered protein by using protease inhibitors

Abstract

To utilize North Paciˆc krill Euphausia paciˆca as a raw material of gel products, protease inhibitors were used to suppress proteolysis during the krill protein recovery process to improve the thermal gel-forming ability of the recovered protein. The krill was homogenized with NaClaq (ˆnal conc. 4) and then diluted to 10 times (v/v) to obtain recovered protein. Intense autolysis including myosin heavy chain (MHC) degradation in the recovered protein was observed at the dehydration step and it was eŠectively suppressed in the presence of serine protease inhibitors such as 50 mmol/kg Benzamidine, 1.0 mg/g SBTI or 5 mmol/kg PMSF. The thermal gel-forming abili