Abstract:

There are rich endogenous proteinases in anchovy meat, which hydrolyze protein into peptides and amino acids.  Therefore, the hydrolysis of anchovy protein can take place automatically. Three crucial parameters of anchovy protein autohydrolysis, namely temperature, initial pH value and water/material ratio, were optimized using a mathematical regression model established based on orthogonal array design experiments and their interactive effects on amino nitrogen content in anchovy protein hydrolysate were analyzed by response surface analysis. Results showed that the optimum autohydrolysis conditions were as follows: temperature 57.05 ℃, water/material ratio 80%, and initial pH 9.0; under such conditions, the actual value of amino nitrogen content reached up to 0.4259 g/100 ml, which was in close agreement with the predicted value of 0.4377 g/100 ml and higher by 11.67% than before the optimization.

Key words: anchovy, endogenous proteinases, autohydrolysis, optimization