Effects of pH and salt concentration on rheological and thermal properties of Pacific whiting surimi were investigated. As pH increased from 6 to 7.5, failure shear stress and strain values increased from 15.4 to 31.32 kPa, whereas lightness values (L * ) decreased from 86.22 to 78.86. Storage modulus (G') followed a trend similar to failure shear stress. A linear relationship (r 2 =0.89) was found between G' and failure stress values as a function of pH. Increasing salt concentration up to 1% increased failure shear stress to 27.14 kPa without salt to 34.30 kPa, and strain values from 1.73 to 1.91, whereas further increase had a negative effect. The relationship between dynamic rheological data and failure shear stress was not linear, indicating that salt concentration cannot be used as an index for estimating final gel quality. The transition temperatures obtained from temperature sweep measurements of Pacific whiting surimi at different salt concentrations showed similar peak temperatures as DSC thermograms, indicating lower stability due to increased salt concentration.

Abstract
Introduction
Materials and Methods
    Materials
    Gel preparation
    Non-failure and failure gel measurements
    Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and coloranalysis
    Statistical analysis
Results and Discussion
    Effect of pH on rheological properties, and color
    Effect of salt on rheological properties, and DSCthermogram
    Linear regression model
Conclusion
References

• Okan Esturk(Department of Food Engineering, Ardahan University)
• Jae-Won Park(Department of Food Science and Technology, OSU Seafood Laboratory, Oregon State University)
• Moo-Yeol Baik(Institute of Life Science and Resources. Department of Food Science and Biotechnology, Kyung Hee University)
• Byung-Yong Kim(Institute of Life Science and Resources. Department of Food Science and Biotechnology, Kyung Hee University) Corresponding author