Characterisation of novel fungal and bacterial protease preparations and evaluation of their ability to hydrolyse meat myofibrillar and connective tissue proteins.

The catalytic capability of four commercially available food-grade fungal and bacterial protease preparations (AFP, FPII, F60K and HT) was evaluated over a range of pH, temperature and substrate conditions using esterase and caseinolytic activity assays and time course hydrolysis over 120 and 60 min of myofibrillar and connective tissue proteins, respectively. The protease preparations displayed similar casein hydrolysis kinetics and were active in hydrolysing BODIPY-FL casein to varying extents at postmortem aging meat pH (5.0-6.0). All of the four proteases exhibited selective hydrolytic activity towards meat myofibrillar proteins including myosin and actin. Significant hydrolysis of two meat tenderisation protein markers troponin T and desmin by the four proteases was detected by western blot. The results obtained indicate that the new fungal protease preparations AFP and FPII, bacterial protease preparation HT and the new source of fungal protease preparation F60K have potential for use in meat tenderising applications.