Enrichment of fishburgers with proteins from surimi washing water

Abstract The proteins recovered by ultrafiltration (UF) represent a co-product of fish industrialization and can be used as a protein ingredient in the fortification of food formulations. The objective of this study was to evaluate the quality of surimi fishburger elaborated with the proteins recovered by UF from the wastewater generated in the production of surimi. The water generated in the washing operations of trims of farmed tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) were filtered in a 30 kDa polyethersulfone membrane. The recovered proteins were dehydrated in spray dryer and added at 5 and 10% into fishburgers made with tilapia surimi. The fishburgers were evaluated for proximal composition, cooking yield, sensory parameters and acceptability. The incorporation of proteins into the fishburgers improved the sensory aspects of the final product and provided greater acceptability while maintaining the same manufacturing yield. The addition of 10% of the recovered proteins increased the nutritional value of surimi fishburgers.