Enzymatic hydrolysis of shrimp meat

Fresh and frozen shrimp were hydrolyzed with chymotrypsin or trypsin, and their proximate composition, pH, amino acid content, and sensory properties were evaluated. The hydrolysates prepared with both enzymes had high levels of glycine, proline, arginine, and valine, and there were no significant differences in the sensory properties of the frozen and fresh products. The optimum conditions for aroma quality using chymotrypsin were obtained with an enzyme to substrate (E:S) ratio of 0.25–0.3% for 2.5 h at 35°C, while the optimum conditions with trypsin were 0.25–0.3% E:S ratio for 2.5–3.0 h at 40°C. Statistical analysis showed that second order polynomial models could be used to predict the content of specific amino acids to a reasonable degree of accuracy.