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Pink and chum salmon. Photo credit: Scott Smiley.

Developing Pink Salmon Nuggets with McDonald's Inc.

Problem: Alaska harvests some 130M pink salmon per year on average. Of this total, some 60M of these fish find solid markets when canned. The development of new technologies to allow processors to make new product formulations from pink salmon is a crucial aspect of the Fish Tech mission.

Solution & Approach: Together with Western Alaska Fisheries we worked to develop prototype products for sale in McDonald’s’ restaurants. The product form we eventually focused on was a restructured pink salmon product. The pink salmon meats were minced, stabilized with phosphate and binders and augmented with various flavorings. The product, as formulated, was then manufactured by Western Alaska Fisheries and served as Pink Salmon Nuggets in the local MacDonald’s’ for about six months. Sales were brisk and demand quite reasonable. Regrettably, the national office for MacDonald’s did not decide to add this product to their menu.

Principal Investigator: Chuck Crapo