Prevention of precipitation in sand lance fish sauce by chelating agents

Chelating agents to sand lance fish sauce for the prevention of precipitate formation were applied. The precipitates consisted of crude protein (74.4%), ash (18.7%), and other components (6.9%). Sand lance sauce was mainly composed of glutamic acid (3.69 mg/g), alanine (2.96 mg/g), and lysine (2.64 mg/g). However, there was an increase in the amount of hydrophobic amino acids, phenylalanine, isoleucine, and leucine, in the precipitates. Sodium ions were not detected in the precipitate; rather, the main elements were Mg (1.98×10⁴ μg/g), K (1.36×10⁴ μg/g), and Ca (6.66×10² μg/g). In HPLC analysis, fish sauce was composed of 2 main peaks with molecular weights of 85.5 and 528.4 Da, respectively. However, the precipitate contained one peak with a molecular weight of 1,513.5 Da. The addition of 0.2% malic acid and citric acid caused 55 and 70% prevention of the precipitate, respectively. Citric acid was the most effective chelating agent and efficiently prevented precipitation in the fish sauce.