Abstract
Thai Mong fish (Pangasius boucorti) is currently promoted as new economic fish in
Thailand. Fish-based hamburger is a high quality convenience product which is highly
suited to the modern consumer who is very aware of the link between diet and health.
Hydrocolloids play an important role in improving the properties of food products such as
moisture retention. The objective of this work was to investigate the effect of hydrocolloid
addition on the keeping quality of uncooked and cooked burgers prepared by Thai Mong
fish during chilled storage. Guar gum or Xanthan gum at 0.5 or 1.0% was added to Thai
Mong fish mince. The resulting fish mince was mixed with ingredients and formed into
mini burgers (25 g, 55+5 mm diameter). The burgers were divided into two batches:
uncooked burger and cooked burger processed by heating at 170o
C for12 minutes. Both
samples were packed in Nylon/Polyethylene bags and stored at 4o
C during the course of
which total viable bacteria (TVB), cooking yield, TBARS value and hardness value were
determined. The results showed that TVB values increased from 4.10 to 6.97 log cfu/g
during storage for 16 days in the uncooked burgers and from 2.44 to 6.03 log cfu/g during
storage for 28 days in the cooked burgers. Addition of Guar or Xanthan gums increased the
cooking yield but decreased TBARS and hardness values of both uncooked and cooked
burgers. Increasing the percentage of Guar and Xanthan gums resulted in improved
qualities of both uncooked and cooked burgers. There were significant differences TBARS
values between the beginning and end of the storage periods (p