Influence of Relative Air Humidity on the Color Change of Fish Meat during Drying

어육건조중 변색에 미치는 상대습도의 영향

A study on the color changes of fish meat during drying was conducted using fishes with different lipid contents, such as Alaska pollack as lean fish, conger eel as white fleshed fatty fish, and sardine as dark fleshed fatty fish. The fish meat was dried in a forced air dryer for 20 hours at 40, 55 and $70^{\circ}C$, The air velocity was 0.4 m/sec and the relative humidity of air was controlled to a constant value in the range of 10 to $50\%$. The color changes were evaluated with the brown color densities developed by lipid oxidation and Maillard reaction. The predominant reaction for the brown color developed during drying was lipid oxidation, The more the lipid content of fish and the higher the drying temperature were, the more violent the oxidative reaction of Lipid was. The rate of lipid oxidation during drying at 40 and $55^{\circ}C$ was affected by the relative humidity of air and was the slowest around $30\%$. But no remarkable influence of relative humidity on the rate of lipid oxidation could be confirmed during drying at $70^{\circ}C$. It seemed that the rate of lipid oxidation at higher temperature was more sensitive to the temperature than the relative humidity of air. Maillard reaction showed not so significant influence on the color changes of fish meat during drying. The rate of reaction was increased with increasing relative humidity of air in the range of 10 to $50\%$.

송풍식건조에 의한 어육건조중의 변색에 미치는 공기의 상대습도의 영향을 검토한 결과를 요약하면 다음과 같다. $40^{\circ}C,\;55^{\circ}C$ 및 $70^{\circ}C$에서의 어육건조중 어육변색의 주된 원인은 지방산화였다. 지방함량이 높은 어육일수록 지방산화에 의한 변색이 심하였다. $40^{\circ}C$와 $55^{\circ}C$에서의 건조중에는 공기의 상대습도가 $30\%$ 정도일 때 지방산화가 가장 늦었으며, 상대습도가 $30\%$ 보다 낮아지거나 높아질수록 지방산화가 촉진되었다. $70^{\circ}C$에서의 건조중에는 상대습도의 지방산화에 대한 뚜렷한 영향이 확인되지 않았으며, 고온에서는 지방산화가 조조온도에 민감한 듯 하였다. Maillard반응에 의한 갈변은 건조중의 변색에는 큰 영향을 미치지 않았고, 상대습도 $10\%{\sim}50\%$의 범위에서는 상대습도가 높을수록 반응속도가 빨랐다.