MINCED FISH TECHNOLOGY AND ITS POTENTIAL FOR DEVELOPING COUNTRIES J.J. Matsumoto

Since the development of 'frozen mince ' (reito surimi) from Alaska pollack in 1959, there has been a remarkable increase in the catch of this North Pacific fish, resulting in a supply of three million tonnes of fish per year to the Japanese market. The frozen mince technique is based on the prevention of denatura-tion, during freezing, of the fish actomyosin by the removal of albumins and inorganic salts and by the addition of sucrose and polyphosphates. Based on a fundamental study of frozen fish mince, the author and his colleagues have proposed some twenty new cryoprotective additive compounds, among which glutamate and aspartate have the greatest effect. These compounds can also modify the eating quality of cooked products. These results, together with the technical success of fish mince and a proposal for another new tech-nique, illustrate the potential for products developed from fish mince in many areas of the world. The success of the frozen surimi (frozen mince or reito surimi) industry in Japan presents an example of the successful development of an unutilized food resource by introducing an original technique. This paper deals with a profile of the frozen surimi industry, its scientific background and an analysis of the conditions which were instrumental t o success