Development of a High-pressure Water Descaling Equipment and Its Effect on the Organizational Structure of Tilapia Meat

In order to solve the problem that the existing descaling equipment caused large mechanical damage to the fish body, a new high-pressure water descaling equipment was developed. The experiment was conducted with tilapia as the raw material. Through the determination of descaling rate, the evaluation of fish body damage, the determination of texture index, and the observation of microstructure (muscle fiber), the process parameter was optimized. The optimal value of the transmission belt frequency of the descaling equipment was determined, and its influence on organizational structure of tilapia was analyzed. The results showed that the descaling effect was the best when the transmission belt frequency was 15 Hz. The overall descaling rate could reach 98%. The sensory score was 4.1 score, which was not significantly different from the manual descaling group. The quality of the back muscles remained intact, the hardness (4.0 N) and chewability (0.74 mm) were both not significantly different from those of the manual descaling group, and the elasticity (0.77 mm) was significantly higher than that of the manual descaling group.Compared with 10 (the muscle fibers were broken) and 20 Hz (the muscle fibers were wrinkled), the muscle fibers were not significantly broken and wrinkled.