Effect of salt, sugar and monosodium glutamate on the viscoelastic properties of fish cracker ("keropok") gel

Rheological and microscopic studies were carried out on the fish cracker (' keropok') gels. A hard gel is very important for the production of uniform, round, and thin slices of dried 'keropok' and easier for mechanical slicin g. The addition of 2 % salt in the 'keropok' gel increased the storage modu lus (G'), and reduced loss tangent (tan delta = G "/G'). An increase in the fish content in 'keropok' also increased the G' and reduced tan delta. Gel s having higher values of storage modulus G' and lower tan delta values, in dicative of a strong elastic network, showed well crosslinked fish muscle b undles in the microscopy studies. In the absence of salt, the fish protein appeared to be in lumps and this has resulted in low storage modulus G' and higher tan delta values. Lower the temperature of the gel to 5C will resul t in 5-6 fold increase in the G' value.