Abstract: The nutritional components and texture of five kinds of famous sufu in Enshi were determined and the relationship between them was analyzed by partial correlation analysis. The result demonstrated that the moisture contents of the sufu samples were around 60%, and the contents of total protein, water-soluble protein, amino acid nitrogen, total acid, salt, fat and total volatile basic nitrogen ranged from 11.26% to 15.66%, 3.94% to 7.24%, 0.56% to 1.95%, 0.32% to 0.78%, 7.90% to 10.82%, 5.88% to 14.46% and, 0.12% to 0.34%, respectively. In addition, the hardness, adhesiveness, springiness, cohesiveness, gumminess ranged from 82.64 to 439.04 g, 9.39 to 167.70 g·s, 0.27 to 0.86, 0.09 to 0.38, and 16.76 to 130.82 g respectively. The partial correlation analysis revealed that the nutritional components prominently influenced the texture. Hardness were significantly positively correlated with the content of total protein, amino acid nitrogen and the ratio of water-soluble protein to total protein content (P < 0.01), but negatively correlated with the content of water-soluble protein and the ratio of amino acid nitrogen to total nitrogen content (AAN/CN) (P < 0.05); gumminess were significantly positively correlated with AAN/CN (P < 0.01), but negatively correlated with the content of amino acid nitrogen and total acid (P < 0.01). In general, the form and content of protein may be an important intrinsic factor affecting the texture of sufu.

Key words: sufu, nutritional components, texture, partial correlation analysis