Abstract: The effect of glycosylation on gel strength and water-holding capacity of egg white protein (EWP) was investigated. The change of amino acid compositions, total sugar content, and intrinsic viscosity as well as particle size distribution were detected by amino acid analyzer, phenol sulfuric acid method, and ostwald viscosimeter as well as static laser light scattering instrument. The results showed that gel strength and water-holding capacity of egg white protein were improved after glycosylation. Both of them reached to the highest value after glycosylation for four days, which revealed the improvement by 91.7% and 35.2%, respectively. The content of lysine in egg white protein exhibited a decrease by 28.42% and the content of total sugar revealed an increase by 2.18% at the fifth day during the glycosylation process. Intrinsic viscosity revealed a slight increase as the extension of treatment time. The particle size of the protein was in the range of 0.1－50.0μm and the conversion from small size protein to large size protein was observed at the first two days, and no significant change was observed during the last four days.

Key words: glycosylation, egg white protein, gel strength, particle size distribution