Understanding Quality in Abalone
- Project Number: 2008/701
- PhD Student: Ms Miriam Fluckiger
- Student Affiliation: University of Tasmania
- Primary Supervsior: Dr Louise Ward
- Co-Supervisors - Dr Malcolm Brown and Assoc Prof Natalie Moltschaniwskyj
- Mentor: Dr Ron Tume
About the Project
Overseas research (predominantly South East Asia) has identified chemical factors (quality attributes) that influence the taste and texture of abalone, and how these factors can vary seasonally, under certain environmental conditions and with post-harvest protocols. The same information is not available for the species of abalone grown in Australia under local conditions. Recently, CSIRO initiated a project on abalone quality developing and validating analytical methods for measuring quality attributes (e.g. nucleotides, free amino acids, collagen and glycogen).
These analytical methodologies are now in place, and some initial work has been completed on cultured animals to establish baseline (between animal) variation, and also different product types (e.g. canned, frozen, live). To date products have been found to have high amounts of free amino acids (which positively influence taste), but variable (e.g. 1 to 30% of dry weight) glycogen (which interacts with other components to influence taste and texture). This project will add to the overall continuing research effort on quality.
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