Abstract:The aim of this work was to evaluate the inhibition of saccharides from seaweed on the freeze-denaturation of protein in Litopenaeus vannamei, compared with sodium pyrophosphate as anti-freeze agent. The results indicated that the thawing loss (5.00~5.54%) of shrimp were significantly (p<0.05) decreased by 0.5% and 1.0% trehalose and alginate oligosaccharides (500~600 Da) treatments after six weeks storage (-18 ℃), which showed little significant difference from that by sodium pyrophosphate treatment (5.02~5.48%, p > 0.05). The L* values of shrimp were not significantly affected by 0.5%, 1.0% trehalose, alginate and its oligosaccharides (p>0.05) during the whole storage, which indicated they had good protective effect on the lightness of the shrimp. In addition, the activity of Ca2+-ATPase, contents of myofibrillar and salt-soluble proteins in shrimp were also decreased in all treated-groups after six weeks storage, while the protective effect on protein by trehalose/alginate oligosaccharides treatments were more significant than the other control groups (p<0.05). The study can lay the foundation for developing a kind of safe, natural and harmless non-phosphate additive which is suitable for the frozen shrimp.
