Research

Canning with Oil, Improving Processed Salmon

Problem:

Canned pink salmon is nutritious but is often considered a low quality product with a low market value. Many consumers hesitate to include canned salmon in their regular diets despite its health benefits because of its sensorial characteristics.

Solution and Approach:

This project will develop a high quality canned pink salmon product, and an alternative pouched pink salmon fillet that shows improved nutritional and sensorial characteristics, such as higher omega-3 FA content, better odor, flavor and mouth feel, and improved color and appearance, through the addition of salmon oil manufactured in the state of Alaska. We will use the two extreme degrees of skin watermarking, bright and dark to further investigate the possible benefits of adding salmon oil to products produced with the lowest value dark pink salmon (ASMI, 2002). As a result, we expect to observe an overall improvement in the quality consistency of these pink salmon products.

Results:

Cans of pink salmon were made with salmon oil added. Implemented commercially, this would allow processors to advertise that specific concentrations of omega-3 fatty acids are in the product. Adding salmon oil at a 1% or 2% level to pink salmon cans insured that the product contained a minimum of 1 g of ?-3 fatty acids per serving, of which at least 600 mg was DHA and 300 mg was EPA.

Presentations:

Oliveira, ACM., Lapis, T., Crapo, CA. & Himelbloom, BH. 2009. Improving the sensorial attributes of Alaska pink salmon. TAFT Triennial Meeting Copenhagen, Denmark.

Lapis, TJ., Oliveira, ACM., Crapo, CA. & Himelbloom, BH. 2009. Improving the Sensorial Attributes of Alaska Pink Salmon (Oncorhynchus gorbuscha) with Salmon Oil. PFT Annual Meeting, Portland OR.

Contact person:

Dr. Alexandra Oliveira: acoliveira@alaska.edu