Effect of microbial transglutaminase on the rheological and textural characteristics of black soybean packed tofu coagulating with Agar

The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of microbial transglutaminase (MTGase) on the rheological and textural characteristics of black soybean packed tofu containing agar as the coagulant. Results showed that the addition of MTGase increased the gelation temperature of soymilk, and produced a firmer and more elastic packed tofu with low cooking loss. Dynamic rheological and textural parameters of the tofu were significantly affected by enzyme concentration, incubation temperature and time. Both G′ and η∗ were positively correlated to the hardness, gumminess and adhesiveness of packed tofu, thus the rheological parameters (G′ and η∗) were good indicators of the texture of the packed tofu. Results suggested that good quality packed tofu could be produced by mixing 90 g black soymilk solid and 2 g agar powder in 1 L of water and incubating with 10 g MTGase for 30 min at 55 °C.