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 slicing. The addition of 2% salt in the 'keropok' gel increased the storage modulus (G′), and reduced loss tangent (tan δ = G″/G′). An increase in the fish content in 'keropok' also increased the G′ and reduced tan δ. Gels having higher values of storage modulus G′ and lower tan δ values, indicative of a strong elastic network, showed well crosslinked fish muscle bundles 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 δ values. Lower the temperature of the gel to 5C will result in 5-6 fold increase in the G′ value