Effect of basic amino acid pretreatment on the quality of canned Antarctic krill

Abstract Antarctic krill (Euphausia Superba) has a high nutritional value; however, due to its autolysis characteristics and easy deterioration characteristics after heating, which leads to difficulties in processing, canned Antarctic krill is one of the few products that exist. However, canned Antarctic krill have a rough taste, high hardness, and poor palatability. Therefore, there is a need to improve its quality. In recent years, the good performance of basic amino acids as a Phosphate-free additives in improving the product quality of foods has indicated their broad application prospect. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of basic amino acid (L-arginine (Arg), L-lysine (Lys), and L-histidine (His)) pretreatment on enhancing the quality of canned Antarctic krill. Low-field nuclear magnetic resonance, magnetic resonance imaging, and textural profile analyses, color, scanning electron microscopy, thiobarbituric acid reaction substances (TBARS), pH, and sensory evaluation were used to determine the indices of krill meat at different pretreatment conditions and processing stages. The results showed that compared to the sodium tripolyphosphate pretreatment group, krill meat pretreated with Lys had a larger peak area of immobile water, higher pseudo-color image brightness after sterilization of krill meat, a more complete microstructure network. Additionally, it had the best water-holding capacity, lower hardness and TBARS values, and significantly higher a* values, indicating that Lys effectively improved the texture and color of krill, protecting the microstructure, and reducing the degree of oxidation. Sensory evaluation results showed that the Lys-treated canned Antarctic krill had a better flavor and texture compared to other canned products. The results of this study suggest that Lys can provide a regulatory strategy for effectively enhancing the quality of canned Antarctic krill.