SEA 



SCIENCE 



Mcrowavin* 



Fast Results for Surirni feting 



S, 



By Ann Green 



ince microwave ovens 

 revolutionized home cooking during 

 the 1 970s, numerous attempts have 

 been made to use the technology for 

 commercial applications. 



However, seafood processors and 

 others in the food industry never adopted 

 the quick-heating technology because of 

 uneven cooking. 



But now, North Carolina Sea 

 Grant researchers have combined a new 

 microwave heating method with a dry 

 ice process to rapidly test the quality of 

 imitation crab, a surirni product. The key 

 component in this copied crab product 

 — mainly used in salads and dips — is 

 freshwater-washed fish meat. 



The new microwave heating system 

 developed by a North Carolina company 

 eliminates a more costly and slower 

 method of testing the quality of imitation 

 crab, according to Tyre Lanier, food 

 science professor at North Carolina State 

 University. 



"The performance and commercial 

 value of imitation crab is underestimated 

 by current tests used by seafood 

 producers," says Lanier. Producers add enzyme 

 or "protease" inhibitors for a crab analog sheet 

 to generate gel strength for water bath test, 

 he adds. In the surirni industry, crab analog is 

 synonymous with imitation crab. 



"These proteases are activated by heating 

 the surirni paste, but do not have time to act and 

 are destroyed at high temperatures," Lanier says. 

 "This makes the test useless for predicting how 

 the surirni will work in the factory process for 

 imitation crab production." 



Because surirni quality cannot be assessed 

 by traditional indicators offish quality — includ- 

 ing smell, appearance and fish texture — special- 

 ized testing is required before production starts. 



The surirni project is a collaboration 

 between North Carolina Sea Grant and Industrial 

 Microwave Systems (IMS), LLC. of Morrisville, 

 which constructed the first commercial prototype 



TOP: IMS general manager David Parrott and Sea Grant researchers 

 Alex Riemann and Tyre Lanier collaborated on the IMS FAST GEL 

 system. BOTTOM: Riemann and Lanier check out the system that can 

 be used to test the gel strength of surirni. 



of a microwave cooker that produces even heating 

 for anything that passes through it. 



Surirni was first developed in Japan several 

 centuries ago when it was discovered that 

 washing minced fish flesh, followed by heating, 

 results in a natural gelling of the flesh, according 

 to Encyclopaedia Britannica Online. "When surirni 

 was combined with other ingredients, various fish 

 gel products called 'kamaboko' or fish cakes were 

 produced." 



New Technology 



NC State graduate student Alex Riemann 

 worked for several years with IMS engineers, 

 including general manager David Parrott, to 

 perfect an instrument that would cook surirni 

 test gels at the same rate as the thin crab analog 

 sheets in the factory. 



The IMS Formulation and Surirni 

 Testing system, known as FAST, is now 

 being marketed to surirni producers 

 around the world. 



Units are already in place at the 

 largest surirni plants in the United States 

 and soon will be placed injapan and 

 France, the two leading surimi-producing 

 countries in Asia and Europe, according 

 to Lanier. 



Besides testing crab analog 

 production, the new technology can be 

 used to test new formulations of surimi- 

 based products. 



"For example, starches used in 

 surirni take up water and swell at a 

 rate based on the heating time and 

 temperature," says Lanier. "So a test gel 

 cooked in the IMS FAST System — when 

 subsequently tested — will predict exactly 

 how a new starch will react in the factory- 

 produced product. And the production 

 line is not tied up for hours, nor are 

 hundreds of pounds of product wasted 

 when testing the new starch." 



The new equipment also allows 

 more effective use of surirni from lower- 

 cost species and fillet trimmings that normally 

 score poorly in conventional testing. 



'You can save $1 55,000 per million pounds 

 of surirni purchased," says Lanier. 



In addition, the equipment is easy to operate 

 and requires little training time for new operators, 

 according to Parrott. 



Sea Grant Research 



During the 1970s, surirni production 

 expanded into the United States. 



North Carolina Sea Grant and NC State 

 were both involved in the cutting-edge research. 

 FrankThomas, then director of the North 

 Carolina State University Seafood Laboratory 

 in Morehead City, purchased a mechanical 

 deboning machine fromjapan to begin 

 experimenting with mechanically minced fish 



Continued 



Coastwatch I High Season 2006 I www.ncseagrant.org 25 



