What Are the Applications of Enzyme TG in the Food Industry?

Ⅰ. Enzyme TG has a wide range of applications

The use of enzyme TG to cross-link food proteins can improve the functional properties of the protein, such as thermal stability, emulsification, gel properties, water retention, rheological properties, and so on. At present, enzyme TG has been widely used in meat products, dairy products, bakery products, vegetable protein products, edible films, and so on.

Ⅱ. Application of enzyme TG in meat products

1. Optimize the product structure and improve the quality of meat products

The texture structure of meat products is an important feature and a key factor that affects consumer choice. The addition of transglutaminase enzymes can significantly improve the quality of meat products. At the same time, the study found that by adding 1% transglutaminase enzyme to the ham sausage meat, the hardness, elasticity, and chewiness of the ham sausage were significantly improved. Adding transglutaminase enzyme to the ham improves the sliceability of the ham.

2. Enhance the water retention performance of the product and increase the cooking yield

Water retention is an important quality index of meat products. It determines the color, aroma, taste, nutrition, juiciness, tenderness, and other edible qualities of meat products, and affects economic value. Because the spatial network structure formed by the catalysis of the transglutaminase enzyme can hold a large amount of water, it can prevent the shrinkage of water during the processing of meat products and improve the cooking yield of the products.

3. Reorganization of minced meat

During the processing of meat products, minced meat and meat residues are often produced. How to recombine these low-value meats to improve their application value and economic value? This is a key issue that all meat factories urgently need to solve. Transglutaminase can form protein intramolecular and intermolecular crosslinks, so it is widely used in the reorganization of meat products.

4. Develop healthy and nutritious meat products

Salt and phosphate play an important role in the structure of meat products. They are essential food additives in the processing of meat products. Long-term excessive intake of salt is harmful to the human body. The development of low-salt, healthy and nutritious meat products has become a research hotspot in meat products in recent years. a transglutaminase enzyme is a powerful tool for the development of such products.

5. Broaden the source of raw meat

Beef, lamb, and poultry are rich in nutrients, low in fat, and high in protein. In the meat consumption structure, it has now risen to 35%. The research and development of high-quality beef, sheep, poultry, and other meat products is an urgent problem to be solved in the meat product market in the future, but the defects of the raw meat itself restrict the development of such products. For example, using chicken as raw material to produce sausages, the hardness of the products is not high. If the sausage is made from chicken meat and transglutaminase is added, things will be different. The hardness and elasticity of such a sausage will be significantly improved.