Strong fish gelatin hydrogels double crosslinked by transglutaminase and carrageenan

Hongrui Chen; Di Wu; Wuchao Ma; Chao Wu; Jia Liu; Ming Du

doi:10.1016/j.foodchem.2021.131873

Strong fish gelatin hydrogels double crosslinked by transglutaminase and carrageenan

Food Chem. 2021 Dec 16:376:131873. doi: 10.1016/j.foodchem.2021.131873. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Hongrui Chen¹, Di Wu¹, Wuchao Ma¹, Chao Wu¹, Jia Liu², Ming Du³

Affiliations

¹ School of Food Science and Technology, National Engineering Research Center of Seafood, Collaborative Innovation Center of Seafood Deep Processing, Dalian Polytechnic University, Dalian 116034, PR China.
² School of Food Science and Technology, National Engineering Research Center of Seafood, Collaborative Innovation Center of Seafood Deep Processing, Dalian Polytechnic University, Dalian 116034, PR China; Institute of Food Processing Technology, Guizhou Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Guiyang 550006, PR China.
³ School of Food Science and Technology, National Engineering Research Center of Seafood, Collaborative Innovation Center of Seafood Deep Processing, Dalian Polytechnic University, Dalian 116034, PR China. Electronic address: duming@dlpu.edu.cn.

PMID: 34971897
DOI: 10.1016/j.foodchem.2021.131873

Abstract

Gelatin hydrogels are usually soft and thermally unstable. Here, strong fish gelatin hydrogels were successfully prepared by double crosslinking gelatin with transglutaminase (TGase) and κ-carrageenan, and the mechanical properties and thermal stability of the double crosslinked gelatin hydrogels were significantly improved. Results showed that the gel strength, compression fracture stress and storage modulus of the double crosslinked gelatin hydrogels all reached the largest value when the concentration of TGase was 20 U/g gelatin. The double crosslinked gelatin hydrogels were also thermally stable due to the existence of the covalent crosslinks. The effect of TGase concentration on the physical properties and microstructure of the double crosslinked hydrogels were analyzed, and the differences between double crosslinked gelatin hydrogels and gelatin hydrogels single crosslinked by TGase or carrageenan were also systematically compared. This article is of great significance for expanding the application of natural polymer-based hydrogels.

Keywords: Double crosslink; Fish gelatin; Hydrogels; Transglutaminase; κ-Carrageenan.