Abstract: The effects of different heating methods such as steaming, hot-water heating and microwave heating on gel properties of silver carp surimi were investigated in this paper. Using fractal analysis, the correlation between fish surimi gel characteristics and microstructure was also explored. The results showed that: (1) heating methods had a significant effect on microstructure and texture of fish surimi (P ≤ 0.05) and microwave heating could provide more uniform and compact structure; (2) heating methods had a significant effect on fractal dimension and pore diameter (P≤ 0.05), and the fractal dimension for silver carp surimi was determined to be 2.7－2.9 and the average pore diameter ranges from 0.1 to 0.3 μm; (3) larger fractal dimension and smaller pore equivalent diameter could provide higher hardness, chewiness, gel strength, breaking force, deformation and water retention. Therefore, fractal dimension and pore equivalent diameter can well reflect the microstructure of surimi.

Key words: surimi, gel, heating methods, heating rate, fractal, microstructure