The Structural and Functional Differences between Three Species of Fish Scale Gelatin and Pigskin Gelatin.

In this paper, gelatin was extracted from the scales of , and by the acid method, and the structure and functional properties of the obtained scale gelatin and food-grade pigskin gelatin (FG) were compared. The results showed that all gelatins exhibited relatively high protein (86.81-93.61%), and low lipid (0.13-0.39%) and ash (0.37-1.99%) contents. FG had the highest gel strength, probably because of its high proline content (11.96%) and high average molecular weight distribution. Low β-antiparallel was beneficial to the stability of emulsion, which led FG to have the best emulsifying property. The high content of hydrophobic amino acids may be one of the reasons for the superior foaming property of scales gelatin (BCG). The gel strength of scales gelatin (CG) and BCG, the ESI of scales gelatin (CPG) and the foaming property of BCG indicate that fish gelatin has the potential to be used in food industry as a substitute for pig skin gelatin.