An edible material comprising partially gelled mannan paste prepared by adding an alkali to a mass of mannan paste to cause gelation thereof to proceed, and adding an acid to said mannan paste thereby to suppress the gelation of said mannan paste. The material has a high degree of affinity for fish meat protein paste or gel.

A low-calorie edible material like pate or mousse, comprising 100 parts by weight of a meat paste containing about 44 to 89% by weight of one or more of fish meat "surimi", poultry meat "surimi" and animal meat "surimi", 30 to 220 parts by weight of a water solution containing 1 to 4% by weight of mannan, 30 to 290 parts by weight of vegetable or animal oil, and a suitable amount of seasoning.

A denatured whey-protein-containing solution which can be converted to an irreversible gel without heating characterized by the fact that said whey-protein-containing solution is produced by diluting a solution of non-denatured whey protein to an extent that coagulation of the whey protein does not occur when the solution is heated at a temperature higher than that required to denature the whey protein, and then heating this diluted solution to a temperature higher than that required for denaturing the whey protein, to produce a soluble association of denatured whey protein molecules without causing coagulation, which solution undergoes irreversible gelation simply by the addition thereto of monovalent or divalent salt-derived ions to form a transparent, non-heat-coagulated gel product which is highly resistant to water dissociation and stable to heat and therefore can be used extensively in raw, frozen, or heat-processed foods or other foodstuffs.