ABSTRACT
Osmotic dehydration of fish has involved soaking or coating fish with salt and/or sucrose. The osmotic treatment of fish using trehalose solution had two main effects: to reduce water content and to incorporate trehalose into the fish. This chapter aims to assess trehalose as a solute for the osmotic dehydration of fish. Some of the species have high drip loss when thawed, and so it was hoped that osmotic dehydration could help to overcome this freezing damage. Trehalose can function in cells as a substitute for water but, unlike water, does not evaporate or freeze. In the absence of trehalose, the cells and tissues become deformed and ruptured when water is lost from the organism. Trehalose has many interesting properties and so may have many potential food applications, particularly for dried or frozen foods. The resulting trehalose is cheap enough to be used in foods.
