PROCESSING OF MARINE FOODS

For the Norwegian fish industry, it is an objective to increase the pr oduction of value added products in order to improve profitability. Th is paper will briefly present four areas of important research tasks i n this field. To aid in the identification of the species present in a product, we have applied the method called Random Amplification of Po lymorphic DNA (RAPD). This technique is used to produce a fingerprint of DNA contained in the sample. The application of DNA typing for spec ies identification in fish products is presented. The nutritional aspe cts of foods are important. Although the low death rate from coronary heart disease among the Eskimos of Greenland has been suggested to ste in in large part from their consumption of fish, one should keep in mi nd that the daily diet of Eskimos living in the traditional way consis ts of substantial quantities of meat and fat (blubber) front seals and whales. A recent study as to whether seal and whale oils are more eff ective than cod liver oil in changing biological parameters that might be important in explaining low incidence of coronary heart disease, a sthma and psoriasis among Greenland Eskimos will be presented. Commerc ial processing of fish must take the development of rigor mortis into consideration since it affects yield and fish flesh quality. influence of early processing (pre-rigor) on fish quality and yield is also dis cussed. There are significant differences among fish species in gross chemical composition and morphological structure. Depending on the pro perties of the flesh and the way it is treated, it may gain or. lose w ater. The relationship between structure and liquid-holding properties of cod and salmon muscle as a function of temperature is presented. C opyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd