Tyre Lanier is a scientist by 

 trade, but a salesman at 

 heart. He delivers a spiel 

 that is fast, slick and con- 

 vincing. He glibly describes how the 

 lowly menhaden, a fish once used for 

 fertilizer and animal feed, can be trans- 

 formed into nutritious food additives. 

 When he's finished, you're as sure as he 

 is the menhaden is destined for the din- 

 ing room. 



But Lanier is not a double-talking 

 huckster. His "soft sell " of menhaden is 

 straightforward and honest. It's based 

 on hard facts, good science and an 

 earnest belief that menhaden deriva- 

 tives can mean as much to the food 

 industry as the soybean. 



In fact, Lanier, a Sea Grant re- 

 searcher and food scientist, introduces 

 the menhaden as "the soybean of the 

 sea" — a Madison Avenue marketing 

 phrase he coined to sell menhaden 

 companies and seafood processors on 

 the fish's versatility and potential. 



Food processors know the story of 

 the soybean. But for those who don't, 

 Lanier describes how years ago Henry 

 Ford (of automobile fame) saw the 

 contribution the soybean was making 

 to nutrition in the Far East. Ford 

 initiated research that resulted in edi- 

 ble oils and protein concentrates 

 which today can be found in almost 

 every manufactured food product in 

 America. Lanier envisions a similar 

 fate for the menhaden. 



"The way the soybean evolved into 

 the food industry is almost identical to 

 the way we think the menhaden will 

 evolve," Lanier says. "We want the 

 food industry to see that analogy. We 

 want them to see that something they 

 now perceive as (animal) feed or 

 worse can easily become a food ingre- 

 dient. Soybeans permeate so many 

 food products beyond where you 

 would normally expect them to be. In 

 other words, the first person to per- 

 ceive putting soybeans in food would 

 have probably said, 'Let's put it where 

 the seed grains go or the legumes go.' 

 They wouldn't have thought about 

 putting them in bacon bits or milk- 

 shakes, strange places like that." 



To follow the path of the soybean 

 would elevate the menhaden from its 

 present status as an industrial fish. Like 

 the soybean at the turn of the century, 

 menhaden oil is not approved for 

 domestic food use, and the protein is 

 used almost entirely for animal feed. 

 Such a lowly fate has lowered the 



menhaden's value (5 cents per pound) 

 as compared to other fish, although the 

 fishery remains the nation's largest in 

 terms of volume. In Lanier's eyes, it's 

 the menhaden's low price and high 

 volume that make it a likely candidate 

 for the "soybean of the sea. " 



Now that Lanier has you convinced 

 of the menhaden's potential, he's ready 

 for the hard sell — menhaden surimi. 

 He begins surprisingly by saying that 

 today all surimi is made from the 

 Alaska pollock, a white-fleshed fish 

 that is low priced and abundant. 



BUT, he emphasizes, rumblings 

 from Alaskan fishery managers indi- 

 cate that pollock stocks may not be as 

 limitless as once believed. With a 

 second punch, he raises the doubt that 

 any one fishery can meet the growing 

 demand for surimi. "If surimi ex- 

 panded to food chains such as Mc- 

 Donald's or Hardee's, " Lanier says, 

 "the pollock fishery could not meet the 

 demand for such large volumes." 



Finally, he adds that food processors 

 have perfected a method for filleting 

 the pollock, making it a potential pro- 

 duct for higher priced traditional sea- 

 food markets. 



After casting a shadow on the pol- 

 lock, Lanier opens the door for an 

 alternative — the menhaden. For four 

 years, Lanier and food scientist Frank 

 Thomas have been working on various 

 Sea Grant projects at NCSU to perfect 

 the making of surimi from menhaden. 

 They know that only science can trans- 

 form the menhaden from a possibility 

 into a reality. And rest assured, Lanier 

 knows his science as well as his sales- 

 manship. 



Pausing from his sales pitch, Lanier 

 admits that menhaden presented some 

 unique problems. It contains a signifi- 

 cant amount of dark muscle that could 

 discolor the surimi product. The fish, 

 especially the Gulf species, had a high 

 fat content that could adversely affect 

 the gelling quality, flavor, storage sta- 

 bility and fat content of the surimi. 

 And the processing procedure re- 

 quired large volumes of water and 

 produced large amounts of effluent. 



Later the research team identified 

 another problem: an enzyme present 

 in the meat that could cause textural 

 problems if heated to certain tempera- 

 tures. But, Lanier stresses that this only 

 poses a problem if the surimi is pro- 

 cessed into traditional meat "sausage" 

 products such as hot dogs, bologna or 

 luncheon meats. It presents no road- 



blocks for manufacturing pseudoshell- 

 fish products — menhaden surimi's 

 most likely avenue of entrance into 

 food processing. 



Back to his peddling, Lanier 

 smoothly counters each problem with 

 scientific research. He reports that the 

 light and dark muscle tissues have 

 been successfully separated under 

 laboratory conditions. If very fresh 

 fish is used, the two meats can be 

 separated in the straining step of the 

 surimi process. And more rigorous 

 washing has reduced the fat content to 

 less than 1 percent in surimi made from 

 Atlantic menhaden and less than 3 

 percent from Gulf menhaden. 



Next, Lanier called in another Sea 

 Grant researcher, NCSU civil engineer 

 Allen Chao. Chao developed a method 

 to reduce water needs and concentrate 

 the effluent. The concentrated efflu- 

 ent can be funneled into existing men- 

 haden reduction plants and recovered 

 for feed or fertilizer. 



The scientists are currently tackling 

 the enzyme problem, Lanier says. 

 They are looking for an additive that 

 might inhibit the enzyme or a process 

 that would remove it altogether. Even 

 without a solution at hand, Lanier con- 

 fidently says menhaden can be refined 

 into "a surimi of a quality comparable 

 in many ways to that prepared from 

 Alaska pollock." 



With many research results in hand 

 and more on the way, Lanier is ready 

 to accept his commission — application 

 of the research on a commercial scale. 

 In fact, Lanier probably developed his 

 peddling pitch because of efforts to 

 interest a menhaden industry bent on 

 animal feed in food products. 



But interest he did. To get started in 

 this new line of production, the men- 

 haden industry asked the federal gov- 

 ernment for some assistance. This 

 year, the National Marine Fisheries 

 Service awarded Zapata Haynie Cor- 

 poration a fisheries development grant 

 to build a pilot menhaden surimi plant 

 in Reidsville, Va. 



When the plant becomes opera- 

 tional this summer, a university advi- 

 sory panel, including Lanier, will exam- 

 ine the quality of the plant's surimi 

 production — the surimi's fat content, 

 protein content and gelling ability. 



What becomes of Sea Grant's top 

 salesman after he collects his commis- 

 sion? He continues to upgrade his pro- 

 duct and look for other ways to refine 

 the menhaden into edible products. 



