Hi Greg,
Thanks for sharing this with us! I've never been on a
commercial fishing vessel, and it's been years since I've worked with
fish. But it's good to hear what's really needed out there.
I wonder if there is some quick way to predict what kind of
surimi one will get from a batch of fish. Maybe something like the
quick water-holding tests that James Jay invented a few decades ago.
Some of them involved crushing meat samples on pieces of filter
paper, forcing water out. Then one could get a rough idea of the
amount of water by seeing how large the wet circle was.
Professor Jay is now an adjunct professor at the University
of Nevada at Las Vegas, and you'd enjoy emailing or chatting with him.
Best regards,
George Chang
UC Berkeley
>>Thanks again for all the replies.
>>
>>As I said before, we are fully implementing sensory methods. A
>>trained sensory panel is good in theory, but in the middle of
>>nowhere in the Bering sea, where tests need to be performed hourly
>>24 hrs./day 7 days per week, the results are still subjective
>>depending on who is performing the sensory evaluation. As for time
>>and temperature, we collect that as well from the delivering
>>vessels, but they are undoubtedly misrepresenting both. The
>>vessels have found ways to disable submersible time-temperature
>>sensors using electric current from an arc welder touched to the
>>water in the hold. The vessels feel that these recorders are
>>basically spies. They record tow times, and log hold temperatures
>>and provide it with their deliveries.
>>
>>Honestly, there is not that much difference in sensory
>>characteristics between a 30 hr. old pollock and a 40 hr. old
>>pollock especially if the weather is rough, but the resulting
>>surimi characteristics can be vastly different.
>>
>>I was hoping for a quick chemical or instrumental method that could
>>be used to evaluate freshness and the resulting protein
>>quality/denaturation. Apparently such a method does not exist, but
>>I thank you for your suggestions. I will continue using our
>>sensory evaluation techniques as you all suggested. Until I can
>>find or develop a better method, that is all I can do.
>>
>>Thanks.
>>
>>Greg Peters, Ph.D.
>>Director of Quality Assurance
>>Alyeska Seafoods, Inc.
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