2. The protein content is less and the moisture content is greater. 

 This is a disadvantage to the consumer because he is getting 

 less protein for his money. It is an advantage to the producer 

 because he will increase his yield of canned tuna per ton of 

 raw fish. 



3. Cans of xindercooked tuna contain a greater volume of aqueous 

 liquid phase containing dissolved protein which might hot be 

 noticed by the consumer because it lies beneath the added 

 vegetable oil. It would probably be discarded by the consumer 

 if he poured off the vegetable oil (this is the usual practice) 

 and would be lost for all practical purposes. 



The possibility of reducing the length of precook, especially if 

 mechanical equipment is developed to clean the fish, is one that will 

 undoubtedly receive considerable attention from the industry in the 

 future. Already a number of producers are experimenting along these 

 lines. If the precook is not cut too drastically, a superior product 

 of better flavor might be obtained which would offset any disadvantage 

 to the consumer due to lowered protein content. If carried out to such 

 an extreme that raw or nearly raw fish were being canned, the disadvantages 

 of reduced protein content and excess retort juices in the can would prob- 

 ably more than offset any advantages to the consumer. Furthermore, raw 

 tuna cannot at present be retorted without the development of unsightly 

 curd on the surface. Unless this difficulty can be overcome by some 

 technological development, it is unlikely that any processor will go to 

 the extreme of retorting raw tuna. 



The final attitude of the Food and Drug Administration to any re- 

 duction in precookirig time for tune is unknown. The original tentative 

 standards proposed by this agency made no provisions for regulation of 

 precook time and tuna retorted without any precook would have complied 

 with such tentative standards vrtiich measured only the amount of fish 

 placed in the can regardless of how or whether it had been precooked. 

 At the present time, the Food and Drug Administration is giving con- 

 sideration to adopting some standard which would at least restrict 

 any reduction of precooking time. This would be accomplished by re- 

 quiring a minimum solids content per can as determined by a proposed 

 "press weight" procedure. 



Some reduction in precook time has already been adopted by much of 

 the industry. Any future changes adopted in precooking time in an effort 

 to save on yield of the fish and possibly to improve flavor must be 

 balanced against any Adverse changes in appearance and texture of the product. 



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