Hi Nancy,
One posibility is tripoly (sodiumtripolyphosphate). I've seen fish you could
literally wring out like a dish rag. Used correctly, the chemical is great
for moisture retention, but it is also tempting for the unscrupulous to
oversoak product for sheer weight-gain. From my experience, this is a fairly
common practice w/ scallops, for example. Soaked overnight in a 4% solution
(or higher), you can turn a quarter-sized scallop into a silver dollar-sized
one (more weight = more $$, and the customer is buying water). Due to this,
there are federal standards for what percent moisture scallops may have: 82%
or less may be labeled "scallops", 82%-86% must be labeled "water added
scallop product", and over 86% H2O means it is "adulterated" and may not
legally be sold (U.S.D.C.) in the U.S. Since there is much skirting of the
law, we often check incoming product for these numbers here at the plant to
keep vendors in line. I don't think there are similar regulations for
content in fish, but I often see examples of fillets that have been
obviously treated w/ tripoly.
Anyone else have other explanations?
Hope this helps.
Cheers,
Fredrik J. Stengard
Director of Research/QC/HACCP
Bama Sea Products, Inc.
756 28th Street South
St. Petersburg, FL 33712
Phone (727) 327-3474 x374
Fax (727) 327-7574
email: fstengard@bamasea.com
-----Original Message-----
From: Nancy Balcom [mailto:balcom@uconnvm.uconn.edu]
Sent: Tuesday, February 04, 2003 9:12 AM
To: seafood@ucdavis.edu
Subject: liquid fish?
Hello to all:
I recently fielded a call from someone who purchased turbot in a
supermarket. He broiled the fish, lightly breaded, the next night for
the typical time of 10 mins to the inch. The flesh appeared to have
nice texture, but when he went to eat the fish, it totally disintegrated
like liquid in his mouth.
Upon returning to the supermarket to complain, he was told that the
fish was supposed to be cooked the day it was bought.
Beyond the obvious problem with the seafood counter staff at that
establishment, my question to you is "What could cause that fish to
go totally liquid like that?"
I don't know if it was previously frozen and thawed.
Any thoughts or insights would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Nancy C. Balcom
CT Sea Grant Extension Program
University of Connecticut
1080 Shennecossett Road
Groton CT 06340
Tel: (860) 405-9127
FAX: (860) 405-9109
E-mail: nancy.balcom@uconn.edu
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