New processing technology of small pelagic fish protein

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Abstract
Small pelagic fishes, such as sardine and mackerel, generally rich in lipid, have a large amount of superficial dark muscle. The proportion of dark to ordinary muscle is 20–30%. Since the dark muscle is red‐colored due to high myoglobin content and different in protein properties from the ordinary muscle, there have been many difficulties in the efficient utilization of small pelagic fish proteins as food resources. Effective processing of frozen surimi from small pelagic fishes is as follows: 1) washing of meat with NaHCO3 solution to remove fat, 2) mechanical removal of dark muscle to make use of only ordinary muscle. However, it is impossible to make surimi from small pelagic fishes that are not fresh, even if the effective processing technique is applied. Frozen minced fish block can be made from sardine and mackerel meats to employ the washing technique and mixing of suitable additives. Recently, fish protein concentrate (Marinbeef) from small pelagic fishes has been developed. It can be rehydrated easily and cooked to acceptable foods. In the processing of Marinbeef, a wider margin of freshness of material fish can be allowed.