Sea cucumber (Stichopus vastus) is considered an underutilized resource, since only its stomach and intestines are eaten raw as salad in a few countries and the remaining parts, especially the integument rich in collagen, is discarded. Hence a valuable by-product having potential nutraceutical and pharmaceutical applications is wasted. In the present investigation, pepsin-solubilized collagen (PSC) from the integument of S. vastus was isolated, purified and characterized.
The gelation properties of spent duck meat surimi-like material produced using acid solubilization (ACS) or alkaline solubilization (ALS) were studied and compared with conventionally processed (CON) surimi-like material. The ACS process yielded the highest protein recovery (P < 0.05). The ALS process generated the highest lipid reduction, and the CON process yielded the lowest reduction (P < 0.05). Surimi-like material produced by the CON process had the highest gel strength, salt extractable protein (SEP), and water holding capacity (WHC), followed by materials produced via the ALS and ACS processes and untreated duck meat (P < 0.05). The material produced by the CON process also had the highest cohesiveness, hardness, and gumminess values and the lowest springiness value. Material produced by the ACS and ALS processes had higher whiteness values than untreated duck meat gels and gels produced by the CON method (P < 0.05). Surimi-like material produced using the ACS and CON processes had significantly higher myoglobin removal (P < 0.05) than that produced by the ALS method and untreated duck meat. Among all surimi-like materials, the highest Ca(2+)-ATPase activity was found in conventionally produced gels (P < 0.05). This suggests that protein oxidation was induced by acid-alkaline solubilization. The gels produced by ALS had a significantly lower (P < 0.05) total SH content than the other samples. This result showed that the acid-alkaline solubilization clearly improved gelation and color properties of spent duck and possibly applied for other high fat raw material.