Effects of starches on the textural, rheological, and color properties of surimi–beef gels with microbial tranglutaminase

In order to evaluate effects of starches (corn starch, potato starch, and tapioca starch) on the characteristics of surimi–beef gels with microbial transglutaminase, the cooking loss, gel strength, color and rheological properties of samples were investigated. Results demonstrated that starches gave negative effects on the cooking loss of surimi–beef gels. The gel with corn starch had the highest cooking loss while that with tapioca starch showed the lowest value. The gel with potato starch obtained the highest gel strength. During the sol–gel transitions, surimi–beef complexes with 3% corn starch exhibited the highest storage modulus value, while that with 3% tapioca starch had the lowest one. The addition of starch caused the increase of L* values of surimi–beef gels. Results showed that the excessive amount of starch resulted in the decrease in gel strength of surimi–beef gels.