Hydrosol Creates Stabilizing System for Surimi

The tailor-made compounds from the HydroTOP range ensure that the end products made from surimi are of excellent quality in respect of taste, appearance and consistency; in this way they compensate to a large extent for biological and technical fluctuations in the raw material.

6/10/ 2011 --- In the processing of surimi to make imitation crab meat there are two different frames of reference: whereas some manufacturers concentrate on maintaining the consistently high quality of their products, others attach more importance to low-cost production. The various stabilizing systems from the HydroTOP MIX 50 and HydroTOP MIX 100 series meet both of these requirements.

Fluctuating fish qualities that depend on the haul, the age of the fish, the available food resources and the purity of the water have a considerable influence on the quality of the pressed fish mass surimi. “In order to achieve consistently high quality, manufacturers have to compensate for these fluctuations by using specific stabilizing systems”, says Friedemann Nau, head of Applications Technology for the fish and fish products sector. The tailor-made compounds from the HydroTOP range ensure that the end products made from surimi are of excellent quality in respect of taste, appearance and consistency; in this way they compensate to a large extent for biological and technical fluctuations in the raw material.

Only with the aid of specific combinations of surimi and dry substances (starch, protein, oil, HydroTOP) and the added water is it possible to create a structure similar to that of traditional, quality products. “That can only be achieved in a complex design process, using highly specific phosphates, hot and cold gelling hydrocolloids with synergistic effects and protein”, Nau continues. Hydrosol’s combinations of active ingredients are designed for 25-35% surimi or a water content of 45-55%, depending on the desired quality; they are geared precisely to the customer’s quality requirements.

The stabilizing systems from the HydroTOP MIX 50 and HydroTOP MIX 100 series have proved highly effective in the manufacture of surimi end products. For Hydrosol uses only top quality hydrocolloids which result in optimum viscosity even at low temperatures – unlike carrageenan, for example. “In the cold condition the products’ water binding and film forming properties promote the formation of a stable, viscous protein/starch matrix. In this network the water is immobilized. That is the prerequisite for continuous mechanical processing into thin strips about one millimetre in thickness”, Nau explains. “When the mixture is heated the protein coagulates and the starch swells. When it cools down, the stabilizing systems start to solidify at around 50 °C and form a gel capable of slicing.”