Quality Evaluation and Optimization of Phosphate-treated Shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei) Using Response Surface Methodology

Abstract

The objective of this study was to determine factors which are more responsible for improving the shrimp quality in cold (2-4°C) phosphate solution with the intervention of four factors such as phosphate concentration, dipping time, rotation speed, and volume of brine solution. Response surface analysis was used to characterize the effect of the phosphate treatment on shrimps by running 33 treatments for optimizing the experiment. For each treatment, phosphate amount (g/kg), moisture content (%) and weight gain (%) were measured. The results assure that phosphate concentration is more important factor than other factors for facilitating phosphate penetration in the meat of the shrimp and for getting the best result. For phosphate concentration in brine solution, international law reports that its final product should be less than 5‰.