Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2025 Jan;24(1):e70067.
doi: 10.1111/1541-4337.70067.

Factors influencing surimi gelling properties and natural additive-based gel fortification strategies: A review

Ruizhi Yang  1 , Nasra Seif Juma  1 , Yadong Zhao  1   2 , Bin Zheng  1 , Yan Xu  1 , Yuanpei Gao  1 , Ru Jia  3 , Pingping Gao  4 , Yanhong He  5
Affiliations
Review

Factors influencing surimi gelling properties and natural additive-based gel fortification strategies: A review

Ruizhi Yang et al. Compr Rev Food Sci Food Saf. 2025 Jan.

Abstract

Gelation and gel properties are crucial to surimi-based seafood products, and many factors significantly influence surimi gel quality. Although physical and chemical modifications can improve surimi gel performance, challenges such as high cost, difficulties in industrialization and environmental pollution pose significant barriers to their practicality. Natural additives offer a promising alternative by reinforcing and improving the characteristics of surimi gel through mechanisms such as protein conformational transformation, protein denaturation, and altered chemical forces. By incorporating different substances into surimi gel, it is possible to tune the interaction between the additives and the myofibrillar proteins, thus enhancing the gelation process and achieving the desired textural profiles. This review comprehensively explored the factors influencing the surimi gelation chemistry, with a focus on how the natural additives such as proteins, lipids, polysaccharides, salts, enzymes, and extracts impact the surimi gel properties. It elucidated the reinforcing mechanisms of these additives and proposed a general interaction model between natural substance and myofibrillar proteins. Furthermore, this review well established the interrelation between the performance and mechanism of enhancement effects of typical natural substances on surimi gels and provided new insights on tuning surimi gelation and gel properties by adding natural additives with specific physicochemical properties, thus facilitating the production of high-quality surimi products with satisfactory gel characteristics in food industry.

Keywords: gelation chemistry; influencing factors; natural additives; reinforcing mechanisms; surimi gel properties.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

REFERENCES

    1. An, Y., Xiong, S., Liu, R., You, J., Yin, T., & Hu, Y. (2021). The effect of cross‐linking degree on physicochemical properties of surimi gel as affected by MTGase. Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture, 101(15), 6228–6238. https://doi.org/10.1002/jsfa.11274
    1. An, Y., You, J., Xiong, S., & Yin, T. (2018). Short‐term frozen storage enhances cross‐linking that was induced by transglutaminase in surimi gels from silver carp (Hypophthalmichthys molitrix). Food Chemistry, 257, 216–222. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodchem.2018.02.140
    1. Borderías, A. J., Tovar, C. A., Domínguez‐Timón, F., Díaz, M. T., Pedrosa, M. M., & Moreno, H. M. (2020). Characterization of healthier mixed surimi gels obtained through partial substitution of myofibrillar proteins by pea protein isolates. Food Hydrocolloids, 107, 105976. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodhyd.2020.105976
    1. Buglak, A. (2023, March). Russia eyes to become a major player in global surimi market. Seafood News. https://www.seafoodnews.com
    1. Cai, Y., Wang, J., Xiao, S., Zhu, J., Yu, J., Li, L., & Liu, Y. (2023). The interaction study of soluble pectin fiber and surimi protein network from silver carp (Hypophthalmichthys molitrix) based on a new prediction model. Food Chemistry, 403, 134429. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodchem.2022.134429

LinkOut - more resources