RE: water activity in fishcakes

From: Pamela Tom (pdtom@ucdavis.edu)
Date: Fri Aug 04 2000 - 09:43:19 PDT

  • Next message: Howgate: "Re: water activity in fishcakes."

    The following information on the use of trehalose in surimi is from
    Susanne Dvorak with Cargill. Susanne is not subscribed to the list.

    From: Susanne_Dvorak@cargill.com
    Date: Fri, 4 Aug 2000 11:31:11 -0500
    Subject: RE: water activity in fishcakes.
    TO: pacusa@pixi.com, seafood@ucdavis.edu, uricml@uriacc.uri.edu
    CC: tplabuza@tc.umn.edu

    Gentlemen,

    Dr. Labuza forwarded your exchange to me. Cargill is now marketing
    trehalose. There is quite a bit of development activity using trehalose in
    this area, and we have customers that are already processing surimi with
    trehalose. Some are replacing sucrose, sorbitol and phosphates with
    trehalose at 8% use level. If any of you are interested in receiving a
    trehalose sample and brochure, please provide your mailing address and
    phone, and we'll be happy to ship to you. If you have any questions or
    would like to discuss further, you can reach me at (952)742-4688.

    Thank you, Ted, for the referral. We are very interested in these
    applications for trehalose.

    Regards,

    Susanne Dvorak
    Trehalose Business Development Manager
    Cargill Specialty Food Ingredients
    ------------------------------------------------------------------------

    From: uricml@uriacc.uri.edu (chong lee)
    Date: Fri, 4 Aug 2000 09:20:52 -0400 (EDT)
    To: "Pacific Management Resources, Inc." <pacusa@pixi.com>,
        <seafood@ucdavis.edu>
    Subject: Re: water activity in fishcakes.

    > Dear John:
    >

    > In today's practice, the surimi-based products are cooked, vacuum
    packed,
    > and steam-pasteurized. Unless extreme temperature abuse is done, the
    > products are generally safe under refrigeration unlike smoked or cured
    > products which are subjected to contamination during processing and
    packed
    > without a further heat treatment. So far, no known botulism has been
    > reported with surimi-based products as far as I know. Regarding
    lowering
    > water activity, two approaches that you may consider are the use of
    > humectants (water activity lowering agents) such as sorbitol, sugar
    and
    > salt, not phosphates. For being less sweet, sorbitol could be a
    better
    > choice than sugar. Depending on the type of product, sugar and salt
    can
    > be added more than what the formula calls for. The second approach is
    > simply lowering the moisture content by adding more starch or
    protein, or
    > any functionally compatible water absorbing ingredients. However,
    this
    > will sacrifice the sensory quality, texture and mouthfeel due to
    hardness
    > and dryness.
    >
    > Chong M. Lee, Professor Dept. of Food Science & Nutrition University
    > of Rhode Island Kingston, RI 02881 Tel. 401-874-2862; Fax.
    > 401-874-2994
    >

    Prof Lee is correct as to solutes but phosphates also lower aw and more
    efficiently since they ionize and have a smaller molecular weight. As to
    starches and prteins they are essentially useless since you would ned to
    have hem as 50% of the weight of the product to get any effect that would
    be significant, eg lowering below 0.93 aw. Another potential aew lowering
    agent is trehalose which is 50% less sweet than sucrose. I will have some
    information on trehalose passed on to Pacific management

    Dr Ted Labuza tplabuza@tc.umn.edu
    Prof. of Food Science Dept. of Food Science & Nutrition 136 ABLMS U of
    Minn St
    Paul, MN 55108 Voice 612-624-9701 Fax 612-625-5272 home fax
    651-483-3302
    cellemail 6126697885@mobile.att.net
    http://fscn.che.umn.edu/Ted_Labuza/tpl.html
     "SURFING THE WAVES OF CYBERSPACE"
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    lecture I am still confused But on a higher level."- E. Fermi

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