New Approach to Improve the Quality of Minced Fish Products from Freeze‐Thawed Cod and Mackerel

To improve the quality of minced fish products, various reductants, e.g. mercaptoethanol, cysteine, tannic acid, sodium bisulfite, and ascorbic acid were used in surimi process. It was found that 0.08–0.10% mercaptoethanol, cysteine, and sodium bisulfite were the most effective in recovering the reactive ‐SH group, and increasing the actomyosin extractability and quality of kamaboko from frozen cod and mackerel. The addition of reducing agents during surimi processing recovered the reactive SH group and subsequently increased the gelation of freeze‐thawed fish meat. This suggests that the formation of disulfide bond is of importance in gelation of minced fish products. The addition of oxidants during processing into final product from the surimi with reducing agents made the gel‐strength of product higher than that of samples without oxidants. This proves the importance of disulfide bond in gelation of minced fish products.