Use of wild Alaska pink salmon in freeze-dried, shelf stable form for military meals ready to eat and myriad other possibilities, including high-energy snacks, is showing much promise, thanks to efforts of Kodiak researchers led by Alexandra Oliveira.
“We are still working on developing recipes and conducting shelf life studies using NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Agency) standards,” said Oliveira, in an interview following her presentation on Feb. 14 to the 63rd annual meeting of the Pacific Fisheries Technologists in Anchorage.
“I believe it has potential for use in MRTEs (military Meals Ready-to-Eat) and combat situations, and other stressful situations,” she said. “Omega-3 fatty acids are very beneficial to people under stress.”
Such a product would also be excellent for people engaged in extreme sports and for the general population, she said.
Oliveira, an associate professor at the University of Alaska Fairbanks’ Kodiak campus, has been engaged in the research with Duy Nguyen, Lale Gurer, Quentin Fong, Peter Bechtel, Brian Himelbloom and Charles Crapo.
In her presentation to the technologists, she gave details on the study to develop freeze-dry flavored products using Alaska salmon. Researchers so far have used fresh deep-skinned and boneless pink salmon fillets that were frozen in blocks, diced into small cubes and vacuum packaged for short-term stores at minus 30 degrees centigrade.
Five test batches of salmon cubes were flavored using a two-step process of blanching at various temperatures, then glazed. Solutions used for blanching and glazing contained varied ratios of water, salt, sugar, fish sauce and onion, garlic and chili power. After glazing, the fish cubes were freeze dried to produce four test products, and the chemical composition and microbial load of the products was determined using standard laboratory methods.
Researchers then conducted a consumer acceptability test, with 114 participants, to compare preference among products.
They concluded it is possible to produce flavored freeze-dry salmon products at varying water activity levels that show potential for inclusion in MREs.
The studies began in 2008, funded through the U.S. Department of Agriculture. In 2010, the researchers produced an article on their work that appeared in the Journal of Food Science. Then in July 2011, they received research funds from the Alaska space program based at Kodiak to run the project for about another 18 months.
While freeze-dried salmon has great potential for MREs used by the military and in snack packs and other forms for athletes, the cost of producing makes it too expensive to use in world hunger relief programs, Oliveira said.
“It will be expensive to produce,” she said. Organizations working to combat hunger in third-world countries will find a more economic source of the same protein and omega-3 fatty acids in canned salmon, she said.
“What’s still missing (in the research) is to make a real cost assessment,” she said. “We need to make a pragmatic cost assessment to determine how much it costs to produce a kilogram of the product.”
Peter Bechtel, an affiliate professor of seafood technology on the Kodiak campus of the University of Alaska Fairbanks School of Fisheries and Ocean Scientists, was among several other Kodiak fisheries researchers giving presentations at the gathering.
Bechtel spoke at length about utilizing fish byproducts in a myriad of products.
Bechtel noted that Alaska has produced fish meal and fish oil for more than 100 years, but that such production was discontinued in the late 1950s due to poor economics and other factors.
The reestablishment of fish meal operations in Alaska was the result of favorable meal prices and a series of important government regulations, he noted. Of recent importance in shaping meal and oil production and markets has been the large increase in world aquaculture production, because aquaculture uses large amounts of meal and oil as feed ingredients, he said. More marine oils, high in omega-3 fatty acids, are also being incorporated into food products, he said.
The value of fish processing byproducts has increased over the past decade due to price increases of fish meal and oils. Bechtel said there is currently much interest in extracting more of the oil from byproducts such as salmon heads and white fish livers, both good sources of oils rich in long chain omega-3 fatty acids and other components.
Bechtel said there is also a need to increase utilization and value of protein from byproduct. Technologies being investigated include low-cost drying and stabilization systems, use of membrane systems in protein concentration and fractionation and others.
A variety of products are being made and markets are being developed for the heads, livers, stomachs and other tissues of fish, as well as the further processing of byproduct parts to make new and improved food and feed ingredients, he said.
Increasing demand for seafood, coupled with decreasing natural supplies, increasing demand for fish meal and oils, and the understanding that biological waste must be properly handled to avoid environmental damage all support utilization of fish byproducts, he said.
This situation has put a new light on byproducts formerly regarded as a disposal expense, because they now have a defined value, Bechtel said.
This article first appeared in The Cordova Times. You can reach Margaret Bauman with comments and suggestions at mbauman@thecordovatimes.com
http://www.alaskadispatch.com/article/how-freeze-dried-alaska-salmon-may-feed-military?page=full
Bechtel spoke at length about utilizing fish byproducts in a myriad of products.
Bechtel noted that Alaska has produced fish meal and fish oil for more than 100 years, but that such production was discontinued in the late 1950s due to poor economics and other factors.
The reestablishment of fish meal operations in Alaska was the result of favorable meal prices and a series of important government regulations, he noted. Of recent importance in shaping meal and oil production and markets has been the large increase in world aquaculture production, because aquaculture uses large amounts of meal and oil as feed ingredients, he said. More marine oils, high in omega-3 fatty acids, are also being incorporated into food products, he said.
The value of fish processing byproducts has increased over the past decade due to price increases of fish meal and oils. Bechtel said there is currently much interest in extracting more of the oil from byproducts such as salmon heads and white fish livers, both good sources of oils rich in long chain omega-3 fatty acids and other components.
Bechtel said there is also a need to increase utilization and value of protein from byproduct. Technologies being investigated include low-cost drying and stabilization systems, use of membrane systems in protein concentration and fractionation and others.
A variety of products are being made and markets are being developed for the heads, livers, stomachs and other tissues of fish, as well as the further processing of byproduct parts to make new and improved food and feed ingredients, he said.
Increasing demand for seafood, coupled with decreasing natural supplies, increasing demand for fish meal and oils, and the understanding that biological waste must be properly handled to avoid environmental damage all support utilization of fish byproducts, he said.
This situation has put a new light on byproducts formerly regarded as a disposal expense, because they now have a defined value, Bechtel said.
This article first appeared in The Cordova Times. You can reach Margaret Bauman with comments and suggestions at mbauman@thecordovatimes.com
http://www.alaskadispatch.com/article/how-freeze-dried-alaska-salmon-may-feed-military?page=full
No comments:
Post a Comment