DEVELOPMENT OF PASTEURIZATION PROCESS FOR ROCK CRAB MEAT (CANCER IRRORATUS)

Rock crab (Cancer irroratus) is abundant in the southern Gulf of St. Lawrence and along coastlines of the Atlantic region of Canada. The objective of this work was to prepare a pasteurization schedule for Atlantic Canadian Rock Crab meat (claw, leg and body). Samples of 175 g of meat plus 52 g of 2% w/w brine or 125 g meat plus 102 g brine were placed in an 8 oz polypropylene container with an aluminum pull-top lid. The slowest heating spot for a conductively heating product was found to be 3.0 cm below the lid. Pasteurization was evaluated at 81C, 82C and 83C to a pasteurization lethality of 40 min at 85C (z = 8.89 C). The heat penetration parameters obtained were j_h= 1.703, f_h= 34.8 min, j_c= 1.549 and f_c= 51.0 min. The optimal process was found to be 83C for 130 min. The shear strength for unprocessed crab leg samples was, on average, 0.33 N/mm² (±0.06) compared to 0.24 N/mm² (+0.02) for processed samples. This represents 27.4% reduction in the shear stress that is largely attributed to the processing method. Thirty two free amino acids were determined including 9 essential amino acids, and their total amounts ranged between 24.8% and 30.0% of the sample, on dry basis. The total amounts of essential amino acids in the processed and unprocessed samples were, respectively, 15.3 and 17.8 mg/g sample. No significant losses in the amounts of essential amino acids was observed between processed and unprocessed samples, except for methionine, isoleucine and lysine, which were significantly reduced in the processed samples.