Sumptuous Surimi Seafood Science
Common Sense for Gloucester and Cape Ann
Issue No. 10, Thursday November 29, 2001, pp. 1, 12
Sumptuous Surimi Seafood Science
by Michael Ryan
In Maine, Eastern Pulp & Paper Corp. - a paper manufacturer - uses waste sawdust in manufacturing its pulp, thus saving more than four million tons of virgin timber and ridding the company of unnecessarily and wastefully burning the waste saw dust. On November 25th, Maine Gov. Angus King presented the company with an environmental excellence award for its accomplishments in pollution prevention.
As forestry companies like Eastern Pulp & Paper try to abide by the regulations imposed upon them by their regulator, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Gloucester fishing concerns continue to struggle even to see eye to eye with their regulatory body, the National Marine Fisheries Services. Fishermen here are forced to throw overboard the majority of their catch. In the midst of stringent, suffocating regulations, a shrinking fishing fleet, continuously conflicting industry data, and blue-light special federal boat buyout programs, new fishing- and fish-related concerns are gathering momentum.
Whether due to a perceived need for a more stable business model or the result of a thousand years of success in development by Japanese fishermen and cooks, surimi and the plan Carmine Gorga, Ph.D. proposes may now be ready for implementation. But, before the wheels of the independent, for-profit company Gloucester Fish, Inc. start spinning, the non-profit, fishing industry partner Gloucester Community Development Corporation first needs to educate Gloucester fishermen, fish processing firms, and fish and seafood marketers about the benefits of joining such a collaborative.
Gorga, president of Gloucester Community Development, and an economist at Polis-tics, Inc., wishes "to bring the community together on the issues of lowering production costs and bringing equity ownership to the three players - fishermen, processors, and marketers. Each can lease the equipment, but what we're doing is forging relationships with these important people for the betterment of the community and a profitable enterprise."
Having served more than thirty-five years in community development roles, ranging from City Planner for Community Planning Services in Boston to Director of Planning and Economic Development for Action, Inc. in Gloucester, he's firm in his belief that today the community is ripe for the business model he suggested back in 1970 - a Functional Integration (FI) Model, a form of organization that attempts to obtain the complementary benefits of vertical or horizontal integration, as well as those of total independence leading to social harmony characterized by civic responsibility.
"The idea of a surimi plant becomes more acceptable if it is seen as the fulcrum to transform Gloucester into a leading seafood processing center. And we're not talking about a huge plant. The space the centrifuges require is only about the size of two small conference rooms."
In short, using his mall business model analogy, he wishes to foster specialization of activities that small entrepreneurs (i.e. fishermen, fish marketers, and processors) cannot achieve, or could achieve more easily collaboratively. A socialist he is not. With low costs and barriers to entry for local Gloucester fishermen, the processed pelagic product's retail price tag is estimated to fetch four times the value of the original product, and profits are to be shared by the players, according to their investment. Next month, he'll present his plan to the Founder's Forum at MIT, but, more important, he says, is the need to listen to the ideas of active local fishermen, in order to best serve the community.
Along with MIT students and related businesspeople, his initiative has the buy-in of several of Cape Ann's fishing industry experts, including Ed Lima (whose columns appear in Common Sense), Mayor Bruce Tobey and Dean Harrison, Director of Community Development, Dave Ellenton, President of World Wide Trading, Dr. Herbert Hultin, Dr. Stephen D. Kelleher, of Umass Marine Station at Hodgkins Cove, who together founded the H-K Surimi Processing Model Gloucester Fish, Inc. will rely on.
"When Angela Sanfilippo of the Gloucester Fishermen Wives told me she would support the collaborative, I felt our chances to succeed just grew by thirty-five percent; she knows and understands everything - all aspects of the businesses, outreach, and manufacturing - so I was very proud to have her with us."
Paralleling the success of surimi are the achievements of Dr. Joe Park, a faculty member in the Department of Food Science and Technology at the Oregon State University Seafood Lab. He brought international recognition to OSU as a leader in seafood science research by establishing the OSU Surimi School in 1993. Each year, the school has a long waiting list and attracts attendees from Japan, Mexico, Ireland, Chile, France, Thailand, Spain, Russia, Denmark, Sweden, Malaysia, and other countries. He established international OSU Surimi Schools in Thailand and France, which are run in alternate years, and he received a grant from the Office of International Research and Development, making the establishment of the first overseas Surimi School in Thailand possible. Dr. Park has been involved in several research projects on an international level and received funding from the Royal Thai Government to undertake a joint research project with Khon Kaen University in the use of tilapia (a species of fish) for surimi. Recently, he received a grant from the Thai Research Fund to work as a mentor for Dr. J. Yongsawatdigul at Suranaree University of Technology and also received funding and support from the Icelandic National
continued on back page
Science Foundation for a joint research project with the University of Iceland in the utilization of seafood wastes in fish sauce production.
In the Gloucester CDC study, which encompassed March 13, 2001 to June 30, 2001, the CDC presented the outline and project summary to eighty-seven civic and political leaders, thirty-two fishing captains, and fifteen seafood processors and waterfront owners.
"The consensus has been that it is worthwhile to explore all the details required to establish the physical and financial feasibility of a surimi plant in Gloucester. The project would give Gloucester and its fishermen a great boost. A model surimi plant just went live in Iceland in September of this year, and not only is surimi being widely marketed in countries like Thailand, Japan, and Korea, it's in huge demand in countries like France, due to its versatility in taste and texture."
"There are so many opportunities beyond the marketing of surimi, too, such as oils and pharmaceuticals. Everything from the fish bones to the scales is recycled in some way, and as a value-added, there's no limit really to what you can do with it." But, again, it's not so much the inventiveness and the development of the idea of processing pelagics into surimi that brings notice to the astute potential investor, it's the labor-intensive administration of task specialization and project management.
Gorga's talking about coordinating and collaborating…among fishermen, processors, and marketers…across several industries…in Gloucester…a city lacking adequate space for waterfront manufactories, or fish processing facilities. Venturing down this road would certainly require excellent communication technologies, foundation assistance, superb management, marketing expertise, and quality assurance of fish products.
To this, he says, "We'll reach efficiency standards in purchasing supplies and equipment, borrowing monies and attending to all other financing requirements of a modern business - including purchasing insurance - that individual entrepreneurs cannot on their own obtain. We'll manage maintenance schedules of all machinery and equipment in a manner unachievable by individual entrepreneurs, and we'll administer a growing database of marketing and biological data. Such a collaborative will nurture first-rate research and development laboratories. The nearest equivalent to this type of social integration is a shopping mall that would be owned by all owners and employees of stores operating within the mall. This is in contrast to the conventional structure in which the malls are owned and operated by independent concerns, which simply rent space within the mall, pay rent, and are provided with all the services that are needed in common."
"In our case, quite rightly, all capital gains (and losses) that accrue from the operation of the mall belong to the owners of the mall. In the FI Model, capital gains or losses accrue to owners of the hardware, and whatever profits accrue from the rental of the hardware belong only to the teams that rent the hardware. The more trust, the more cohesion, the more benefits. Today, this collaboration occurs quite rarely, and when it does it is mostly due to chance - one processor here, two fishermen there."
"What will you see thirty years from now? If you go down to the Gloucester waterfront today, you can plainly see that the seafood industry is in a state of disorganization and despair. You see few fishing boats steaming out to sea to fish for cod, haddock, and flounder because of the federal regulations. You see seafood plants that, due to the decreased catch, have been forced to close. You quickly realize that wharf space left idle for a number of years begins attracting condominium and real estate developers, motels, and touristy stores. The soul of Gloucester - America's oldest fishing port - will be inalterably changed. To have true renewal of the fisheries, we need to have a thorough renewal of our economic policies and practices."
Glossary of Industry Terms:
Some terms were defined by Angela Sanfilippo of The Gloucester Fishermen Wives, while others were culled from a seafood processor's web site.
Aquaculture - Finfish or shellfish raised in fresh or saltwater pens or ponds or on growing surfaces such as ropes or posts.
Best Available Science - Unbiased information based on data that integrates current data that is less than two years old, is collected by both government and fishermen working together, utilizing the same or calibrated equipment and practices and meets generally accepted standards with no less than 80% accuracy, defined by the probability distribution function. The best available science must be used before a stock can be declared "over fished".
Biomass - the amount of living material.
Blast Freezing - Freezing by circulating cold air over batched product placed in trays or racks.
Bleeding - Severing an artery of a fish before the fish is gutted and dies to allow the heart to pump out the fish's blood. The result is a whiter fillet and higher quality meat.
Blocks - Frozen compressed slabs of fish fillets, usually without skin and bone, used as raw material for value-added products.
By-catch - Unintended catching and killing of marine life.
CSW - Chilled seawater. Seawater chilled with ice and mixed using air.
Deep Skinned - Removing the fat layer underneath the skin on oily species for milder flavor and improved shelf life; also called defatted.
FAS - Frozen at sea.
Fishing Community - US vessels, crew, people, and related businesses that earn
income as the result of the harvesting or processing of wild fish stocks.
Fish Oil - Fatty oil from the bodies of fishes pressed from cooked fish during the manufacture of fish meal and separated by centrifuge. Used in the manufacture of many products, such as margarine, cooking oil,
cosmetics, caulking compounds, paints, industrial coatings, lubricants, water repellents, soaps, and candles.
Fish meal - Coarsely ground powder made from the cooked flesh of fish, primarily used in animal feed especially for poultry, swine, mink, farm-raised fish, and pets.
Formed Fillets - Portions cut from blocks in such a way that they appear to be natural fillets although all are exactly the same size and shape.
Frozen-At-Sea Products - Fish and shellfish that are cleaned, processed, and frozen on board usually within hours of being caught.
Gel Strength - Mechanical strength and elasticity of the gel produced in cooked surimi.
GMPs - Good Manufacturing Practices. Federal regulations that describe proper food sanitation and handling practices. HACCP (Hazard Analysis of Critical Control Points) - The basis of a voluntary seafood inspection program overseen jointly by the National Marine Fisheries Service and the Food and Drug Administration. HACCP requires suppliers to write up and follow a program detailing all points in their manufacturing process where hazards exist.
Healthy Fishing Community - A "fishing community" that maintains sustainable participation in US fisheries and provides for the social, economic, and cultural needs of such community.
Over Fishing - That amount of fishing mortality, not including mortality or stock population declines from other causes (e.g. pollution or habitat loss, changes in physical or natural environmental conditions, predators, and unknown causes) which decrease spawning biomass to a stock level that results in decreasing stock population over time.
Pelagic - Species living in the open sea, as distinguished from benthic species living near the bottom.
Previously Frozen - Frozen seafood that has been slacked out, or thawed, for sale in that
state. Must be clearly identified as "previously frozen" product to distinguish it from fresh.
Primary Processor - Refers to the first freezing/processing facility that handles freshly caught fish or shellfish.
RSW - Refrigerated Seawater. A chilling and holding system for fish that uses mechanical refrigeration to cool seawater. Boats involved in Surimi production off of Gloucester might transport pelagics in RSW containers.
Secondary Processor - Refers to a processing facility that utilizes previously frozen seafood and further processes it (into specialty cut, batter/bread, etc.) before selling.
Shelf Life - The expected amount of time a seafood product remains in high quality condition for human consumption. Variation in shelf life among species is due to composition of the seafood. In general, the higher the fat content, the more prone the product is to spoilage and flavor changes. Cold temperatures retard most of these changes.
Surimi - An odorless, white fish paste developed by the Japanese centuries ago; made from minced fish meat (usually pollock) which has been washed to remove fat, blood, pigments, and odorous substances and mixed with cryoprotectants, such as sugar and/or sorbital.
Surimi Seafood - Analog shellfish products made from surimi that has been thawed, blended with flavorings, stabilizers and colorings and then heat processed to make fibrous, flake, chunk, and composite molded products, most commonly imitating crabmeat, lobster tails, and shrimp.
Value-Added - Product that has been reprocessed and repackaged into a consumer ready form.
Vertical Integration - Refers to a company's ability to control its goods from the beginning raw state to the finished end product, including harvesting, processing, and marketing.
Yield - The amount of meat that can be recovered from a particular fish or shellfish; usually expressed as a percent.
1. Tempura -Thailand 2. Imitation Shrimp - Thailand, Korea and China. 3. Imitation Lobster Tails - Thailand and Korea 4. Imitation Crab Claw Meat - Thailand and Korea 5. Imitation Smoked Salmon Flakes & Sticks -Thailand and Korea 6. Surimi Claws - Korea and Malaysia
