Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
Currently, FNS students at NC A&T SU do not have the opportunity to gain hands-on experience in plant-based food research. Plant-based foods, particularly plant-based seafood are one of the emerging areas of the food industry which require highly educated professionals. Through this research, students will learn how to develop plant-based surimi seafood. Surimi seafood or imitation crab meat is a Japanese term that means minced meat. It is usually prepared from washed fish meat. Students will also learn to test the physicochemical, microbiological, and sensory properties of the product. Besides, we plan to hold a few lecture series and webinars for students, faculty, and staff at NC A&T SU to introduce the concept of plant-based food products and promote healthy eating among them. These lectures and webinars will be also posted on social media to be accessible to the public. Our main objective is to produce a cost-effective, nutritious, and tasteful plant-based surimi seafood product that may provide consumers with an additional meal option. At the same time, this research will provide educational and experiential learning opportunities for underrepresented minority students to be prepared for the flourishing and competitive job market of plant-based food products in the future. The long-term goal of this project is to provide the grounds to offer a plant-based food-related course or certificate program in the future to prepare qualified graduates for the competitive job market.
Animal Health Component
0%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
10%
Applied
40%
Developmental
50%
Goals / Objectives
Our main objective is to produce a cost-effective, nutritious, and tasteful plant-based surimi seafood product that may provide consumers with an additional meal option. At the same time, our goal is to build a research and experiential learning capacity in plant-based foods to prepare food and nutritional students (FNS) at NC A&T SU for the future job market. These research, educational, and experiential learning opportunities will be gained with the accomplishment of the following objectives:Objective 1: Introduce the concept of plant-based seafood to FNS students at NC A&T SU by conducting webinars and lectures.Objective 2: Develop plant-based surimi seafood at a lab scale.Objective 3: Evaluate the physicochemical properties of the developed plant-based surimi seafood.Objective 4: Investigate the microbial quality of the product during storage at refrigerated temperature.Objective 5: Assess the consumer acceptability of plant-based surimi seafood.
Project Methods
This project will be conducted in two parts: The first part is introducing the concept of plant-based foods to students by conducting seminars and lectures (online and in-person). The second part includes the preparation of control samples and plant-based surimi seafood at a lab scale. For this part, initially, Frozen Alaskan pollock surimi grade A will be obtained from Trident Seafoods Corp(Seattle, WA) and will be chopped and mixed with standard functional ingredients that are typically used in commercial surimi manufacturing. These samples will be used as a control group. Then, plant-based surimi seafood will be developed with different ingredients and at different concentrations. The prepared samples will be stored at refrigerated temperatures for 15 days. In order to test the samples, physical, chemical, microbiological, and sensory analyses will be conducted. These tests include but are not limited to proximate composition (moisture, protein, fat, ash, carbohydrate), color, texture, cooking loss, water holding capacity, and scanning electron microscopy. Microbial quality of the surimi and plant-based surimi samples will be tested by enumeration of mesophilic aerobic plate counts, total coliforms, genericE. coli, andStaphylococcus (S.) aureus,Pseudomonads, and H2S-producing bacteria (includingShewanella putrefaciens). To assess the product's consumer acceptability, two sensory evaluations, triangle, and paired preference tests, will be performed. Trained panelists will be served different treatments in a well-lit and ventilated room on coded white plates. They will evaluate the samples using the nine-point hedonic scale. Participants will rank the products on a scale of one to nine, with one equal to "dislike extremely" and nine equaling "like extremely." Upon successful implementation of the prototype, in consultation with our industry partner, GFI, we will collaborate with a plant-based food manufacturing company to scale up the product.