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Research

Baby Food from Salmon Roe - Salmon Baby Food III

FY2006 Final Report

Problem:

The purpose of this project is to analyze the development of baby foods made from salmon roe as well as a baby food ingredient made from salmon oil and materials derived from salmon roe. In addition we want to provide salmon processors in Alaska and market leaders worldwide samples of this work to apprise them of the potential for the use of salmon and salmon ingredients in baby foods.
Approach: One of our main objectives is to provide a method to baby food manufacturers, distributors and buyers to incorporate the Omega 3 fatty acids EPA and DHA in baby foods.

Results:

Gerber is now making two different commercial jarred baby food formulations containing Alaskan salmon.

Jarred Baby Foods: Shelf stable baby foods from Alaskan salmon were developed from red and pink salmon with and without bones. This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of thermal treatment on the rheological properties of newly developed salmon based baby foods in our laboratory and how these properties change due to compositions. Thermal treatment is a required procedure to ensure product safety. This study has suggested that the rheological properties of salmon baby foods changed due to protein denaturation and starch gelatinization during the thermal process. Thermal treatment resulted in less elastic properties than untreated samples. Effect of composition on rheological properties was less significant than the thermal treatment.

Dried Salmon Baby Foods: Two different kinds of salmon products were made, dried chunk salmon and dried salmon powder that was mixed with cream cheese. Four different formulations of each were made and tested. Bone in salmon fillets had numerically higher cooking yield than bone out fillets. Moisture content among the raw samples was similar. At the same time, Bone out fillets had numerically higher moisture content. Sockeye salmon had the highest fat content. Regardless of the salmon type, as particle size was reduced, whiteness values were increased. In addition, as particle size increased, redness values decreased. Sensory panel detected no oxidized flavor on either powder or chunk salmon. Also, very small amount of off flavor was detected on chunk salmon. This flavor was undetectable in two of the samples when combined with cream cheese as powder salmon.

Salmon Oil in Baby Food: We produced baby food containing added salmon oil or microencapsulated salmon oil and evaluated them for the chemical and physical properties. Unrefined salmon oil (USO) was extracted from Alaska red salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka) heads and separately purified (PSO) using 5% (wt/wt of oil) shrimp chitosan (degree of deacetylation: 83.3%) in a batch absorption process at 23°C for 60 min. Both USO and PSO were evaluated for peroxide value (PV), free fatty acids (FFAs), fatty acid profiles (FA), and insoluble impurities. A commercial baby food (CBF) was purchased from local food store in Baton Rouge, LA. Two baby foods containing fish oil products were produced: a baby food containing PSO (BPSO) was produced adding 1 g of PSO to 113 g (1 serving) of the commericial baby food. A second baby food with 3 g of microencpaulated PSO powder (BMPSO) added to 113 g of the commericial baby food was also produced. Unaugmented CBF was used as a reference. All baby food samples were evaluated for FFA, FA, and color. Triplicate experiments were conducted and data were statistically analyzed (α=0.05).

Results: Red salmon oil, purified with chitosan, was effective in reducing FFA from the value obtained for unpurified red salmon oil. Chitosan was also effectively in reducing moisture content, water activity and apparent viscosity of the USO. However, it did not affect the fatty acid composition of the oil sample. Emulsions containing PSO behaved more like a visco-elastic material that was observed with emulsions made with USO. The fatty acid composition of microencapsulated USO powder was slightly lower in total omega-3 and total polyunsaturated contents than microencapsulated PSO. The DHA content of the baby food were significantly increased by adding PSO or microencapsulated red salmon oil. The CBF, PSO, and BMPSO contained 0.5, 2.6, and 2.8 (%) of DHA, respectively. Total omega-3 fatty acids of CBF, BPSO, and BMPSO amounted 2.8, 8.7, and 10.6 (%), respectively.

Summary:

This study demonstrated the effectiveness of using chitosan to purify red salmon oil and also that salmon oil can be added to baby-food, either as a liquid or a microencapsulated powder, to alter the levels of DHA without increasing the PV and FFAs.

Presentations & Publications:

  • Wan, Y., Sathivel, S. & Bechtel, PJ. 2009. Quality determination of baby foods containing menhaden (Brevoortia tyrannus) and red salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka) oils. Ann. Mtg. Institute of Food Technologists, Anaheim, CA, abstract no. 119-39, pp. 139-140.
  • Sathivel, S., Yin, H. & Huang, J. 2008. Development of economical methods to purify and microencapsulate salmon oil. 59th Ann. Mtg. of the Pacific Fisheries Technologists, San Francisco, CA, p 41.
  • DeSantos, FA., Ramamoorthi, L., Bechtel, PJ., Smiley, S. & Brewer, MS. 2010. Effect of salmon type and presence/absence of bone on color, sensory characteristics, and consumer acceptability of pureed and chunked infant food products. Journal Food Science 75(6): S279-S285.
  • Desantos, FA., Bechtel, PJ., Smiley, S. & Brewer, MS. 2010. Effect of Inclusion of Salmon Roe on Characteristics of Salmon Baby Food Products. Journal Food Science 75(4): S231-S236.


Contact person:

Dr. Scott Smiley: stsmiley@alaska.edu