Incorporation of nanoscale fishbone enhances frozen snakehead fish slice quality via synergistic mechanisms: Pickering emulsion oxygen barrier and TGase-mediated protein crosslinking.

This study elucidated the mechanism of nanoscale fishbone (NFB) enhancing quality of the marinated fish slices. Compared to control (without NFB), peroxide value, malonaldehyde content, and proportion of saturated fatty acids extracted from NFB marinade were significantly lower after 9 freeze-thaw cycles. The NFB incorporation significantly mitigated the freeze-thaw induced surface hydrophobicity while reducing sulfhydryl loss. The oxidation inhibition indicated an oxygen-barrier effect likely formed by NFB stabilized Pickering emulsion as evident by Cryo-SEM and confocal microscopy. Additionally, the lower levels of free amines and myosin heavy chain of the slice revealed that the calcium ions present in NFB promoted transglutaminase (TGase) induced protein cross-linking by catalyzing the formation of covalent bonds between glutamine and lysine residues. Therefore, it can be concluded that the incorporation of NFB enhances the snakehead fish slice quality by the synergistic effects of Pickering emulsion oxygen barrier and TGase-mediated protein crosslinking.