Herring milt hydrolysate (HMH), like many fish products, presents the drawback to be associated with off-flavors. As odor is an important criterion, an effective deodorization method targeting the volatile compounds responsible for off-flavors needs to be developed. The potential of electrodialysis (ED) to remove the 15 volatile compounds identified, in the first part of this work, for their main contribution to the odor of HMH, as well as trimethylamine, dimethylamine and trimethylamine oxide, was assessed by testing the impact of both hydrolysate pH (4 and 7) and current conditions (no current vs. current applied). The ED performance was compared with that of a deaerator by assessing three hydrolysate pH values (4, 7 and 10). The initial pH of HMH had a huge impact on the targeted compounds, while ED had no effect. The fouling formation, resulting from electrostatic and hydrophobic interactions between HMH constituents and ion-exchange membranes (IEM); the occurrence of water dissociation on IEM interfaces, due to the reaching of the limiting current density; and the presence of water dissociation catalyzers were considered as the major limiting process conditions. The deaerator treatment on hydrolysate at pH 7 and its alkalization until pH 10 led to the best removal of odorant compounds.

Herring milt hydrolysate (HMH) presents the disadvantage of being associated with an unpleasant smell limiting its use. Thus, to develop a new effective and easy-to-use deodorization method, this research aimed to deepen the knowledge regarding the impacts of pH (pH 7 vs. pH 10), overnight stirring with nitrogen (+N vs. −N) and deaerator treatment (+D vs. −D) on the odorous content of HMH. This latter included dimethylamine (DMA), trimethylamine (TMA), trimethylamine oxide (TMAO) and the most potent odor-active compounds of HMH. Results showed that pH had a huge impact on the targeted compounds resulting in higher detected concentrations of DMA, TMA and TMAO at pH 10 than at pH 7 (p < 0.05) while the opposite trend was observed for the most potent odor-active compounds of HMH (p < 0.05). Moreover, independently of the pH condition, the overnight stirring with or without nitrogen had no impact (p > 0.05). Finally, the deaerator treatment was more effective to remove TMA and DMA at pH 10 than at pH 7 (p < 0.05) while the opposite trend was observed for the most potent odor-active compounds (p < 0.05). Sensory analysis confirmed that the application of pH 10 −N +D and pH 7 −N +D + alkalization pH 10 conditions led to the least odorous products (p < 0.05).

The production of bioactive peptides from hemoglobin via peptic hydrolysis is a promising alternative to valorizing slaughterhouse blood proteins. Nevertheless, it has some limitations such as low yield, high cost of enzymes, and the use of chemical reagents. The latter is aggravated by the pH increase to inactivate the enzyme, which can affect the bioactivity of the peptides. Thus, this study aimed to evaluate the effect of pulsed electric fields (PEF) on the pepsin inactivation and biological activities (antimicrobial and antioxidant) of hemoglobin hydrolysates. Bovine (Hb-B) and porcine (Hb-P) hemoglobin were hydrolyzed with pepsin for 3 h and treated with PEFs to inactivate the enzyme. The degree of hydrolysis (DH) did not show significant changes after PEF inactivation, whereas peptide population analysis showed some changes in PEF-treated hydrolysates over time, suggesting residual pepsin activity. PEF treatments showed no significant positive or negative impact on antimicrobial and antioxidant activities. Additionally, the impact of pH (3, 7, and 10) on bioactivity was studied. Higher pH fostered stronger anti-yeast activity and DPPH-scavenging capacity, whereas pH 7 fostered antifungal activity. Thus, the use of hemoglobin from the meat industry combined with PEF treatments could fit the circular economy concept since bioactive peptides can be produced more eco-efficiently and recycled to reduce the spoilage of meat products. Nevertheless, further studies on PEF conditions must be carried out to achieve complete inactivation of pepsin and the potential enhancement of peptides’ bioactivity.

Despite the biological interest in herring milt hydrolysate (HMH), its valorization is limited by its unpleasant odor resulting from the presence of mainly amine and carbonyl compounds. Recently, a deaerator was demonstrated as an interesting avenue to reduce the odorous content of HMH. However, the removal rate of amine and carbonyl compounds was highly dependent on the operating conditions, and the impact of such a process on the biological potential of HMH was not considered. Therefore, this study aimed to optimize the deaerator process by assessing the impacts of the combination of deaerator treatments at neutral and basic pH, the increase in pH from 10 to 11, and the substitution of NaOH by KOH on the odorous content and the antioxidant activity of HMH. Results showed that the highest deodorization rate of HMH was obtained when a deaerator treatment at neutral pH was combined with another one at basic pH using KOH for alkalization. This condition resulted in a decrease in the dimethylamine and trimethylamine contents by 70%, while certain compounds such as 2,3-pentanedione, methional, (E,E)-2,4-heptadienal, or (E,Z)-2,6-nonadienal were almost completely removed. Removal mechanisms of the targeted compounds were totally identified, and the performance of the developed process was confirmed by sensory analysis. Lastly, it was shown that the antioxidant potential of HMH was not affected by the deodorization process. These results demonstrated the feasibility of deodorizing a complex matrix without affecting its biological potential.