Enzymatic Hydrolysis and Retort Processing of Protein Hydrolysate Essence Soup from Buk-Siam Maejo Hybrid Catfish

Abstract

This work examined two processing steps for a Buk-Siam Maejo hybrid catfish essence soup, enzymatic hydrolysis and retort treatment. Enzyme dose, temperature, and time were evaluated in a Box–Behnken design using Prote AX, an Aspergillus oryzae protease. The selected hydrolysis condition used 0.10% enzyme at 50 °C for 3 h and gave a yield of 72.00%. For retort processing, temperature, time, and F₀ were varied, and 117 °C for 17 min was selected at a reported F₀ of approximately 9 min. Solids rose slightly and pH fell across the thermal treatments, with little variation in viscosity. Thirty untrained panelists gave the soup an overall liking score of 7.77 ± 1.26. The two commercial comparators scored 4.90 ± 2.00 and 6.47 ± 1.70. The processing conditions produced a soup with limited physicochemical changes during retort treatment and favorable liking in this panel. These quality results provide a basis for further development, with thermal-process and shelf-life validation still needed.