Study on the mechanism of soy protein isolate to improve quality of reduced-salt Hypophthalmichthys molitrix surimi gel: Focus on gel quality, protein structure, and in vitro digestibility

Excessive intake of sodium chloride may bring a series of diseases; as a result, reduced-salt surimi gels have gained growing popularity for sodium reduction. This paper studied soy protein isolate (SPI, 2.0%, 4.0%, and 6.0%, w/w) as a gel enhancer for reduced-salt silver carp surimi. Compared with the control (2.0% NaCl), the addition of SPI significantly increased (P < 0.05) the total SH content, hydrophobic interaction force, disulfide bond, hardness, gel strength, and water-holding capacity of the gels. During the thermal denaturation process, SPI and myofibrillar protein jointly participated in the formation of the gel network, resulting in a G′ value increase at 90 °C, forming a denser/more stable gel network structure. In vitro pepsin digestion results showed the digestibility of the reduced-salt gel with SPI was higher than that of the control. Therefore, appropriate SPI addition can improve the gel performance of reduced-salt surimi gel without affecting digestion and absorption.