LAUSR

BACKGROUND To ameliorate egg white gel's salinity and undesirable texture characteristics during curing, different metal ions (K+ , Mg2+ , Ca2+ , Zn2+ ) were used to replace NaCl to simulate salted eggs partially. The effects of these ions on the physicochemical properties, microstructure, and gel characteristics of egg white protein were studied. RESULTS Low field nuclear magnetic resonance (LF-NMR) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) analysis showed that adding K+ , Mg2+ , Ca2+, and Zn2+ could decrease immobile water content and increase free water content in egg white gel. Circular dichroism/ Fluorescence Spectrophotometer (CD/ FL) analysis showed that substitutive addition of K+ , Mg2+ , Ca2+, and Zn2+ changed the conformational structure of the protein, which was not conducive to the formation of the three-dimensional mesh gel structure. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) results show that the addition of four metal ions could reduce the thermal denaturation temperature of egg white gel. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) showed that the gel structure of egg white in the ZnCl2 group was rougher and more chaotic, the crosslinking degree was worse, so it was not suitable for low sodium salted eggs preparations. The gel strength of the CaCl2 group was significantly higher than other groups (P < 0.05), while the gel strength of the KCl group was similar to the NaCl group (P >0.05). CONCLUSION CaCl2 and KCl could be used as partial NaCl substitutes to study the addition level and ratio further and improve salted egg white quality. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.