Research Directions

The creation of the Coastal Oregon Marine Experiment Station (COMES) has given faculty and staff an opportunity to define their research goals:

• Value-added Product Development
• Seafood Safety
• Seafood Biochemistry and Quality
• Surimi and Surimi Seafood
• Seafood Waste Issues

Since 1991, the OSU-SFL received over $8 million in grants-in-aid from federal, state agencies, and private industry to undertake research in these areas. Specific research projects include new methods to measure surimi quality, the use of high pressure processing in oysters and other seafood products, value-added product development and marketing of several seafood products including tuna and whiting in the U.S. and foreign markets. Improving textural properties of surimi through the use of protease inhibitors and gel enhancers, and a number of starch ingredients is also being investigated. The development of new processing technologies using ohmic heating and high hydrostatic pressure for seafood products has shown the viability of these methods. Seafood waste and water use in processing plants is another major area of research activity. Retrieval of bioactive compounds from shrimp waste and recovery of gelling proteins from surimi wash water permit increased utilization and a reduction of wastes in the seafood industry. Seafood safety is a growing area of research for the OSU-SFL. The reduction of Vibrios in oysters, elimination of Listeria in smoked salmon, and pasteurization of surimi by e-beam radiation are some of the exciting areas of research currently underway.