Emulsifying and Gelation Properties during Freezing and Frozen Storage of Hake, Pork, and Chicken Actomyosins As Affected by Addition of Formaldehyde

This paper describes an experiment designed to analyze the influence of freezing and frozen storage on aromatic hydrophobicity and emulsifying and thermal gelation properties of natural actomyosin (NAM) derived from myosystems with differing stability to low temperatures (chicken, pork, and hake). The effect of formaldehyde on these parameters was also studied. It was found that hydrophobicity, emulsifying activity index, and gel strength of the natural actomyosin were generally influenced by the species, the freezing and storage process, and the presence of formaldehyde. Chicken NAM proved the most stable to both formaldehyde and low temperatures. Changes in the characteristics of chicken actomyosin induced during freezing and frozen storage favored greater gel strength.