Green mussel (Perna viridis) and brown mussel (P.indica) are available in substantial quantities from their natural beds along the south- east and south-west coasts of India respectively. Mussel is locally collected for its meat which is consumed in the nearby areas. Mussel meat normally finds favour with people of low income group and that too when the fish is scarce or costly, which often results in poor economic returns to the collector

Balachandran, K K

Prabhu, P V

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CMFRI WORKSHOP ON MUSSEL FARMING 25 - 27 SEPTEMBER, 1980 MADRAS CENTRE OF ADVANCED STUDIES IN MARICULTURE CENTRAL MARINE FISHERIES RESEARCH INSTITUTE P. B. No. 1912, COCHIN-682 018, INDIA .< r CENTRAL MARINE: FISHERIES RESEARCH INSTITU'ffi COCHIN - 682 018 CF.NTRE OF ADVANCED STUDIES IN MARl CULTURE VIORKSHOP ON MUSSEL FARMING MADRAS 25- 27 SEPT&'.!BER 1980 -----------------------------------------------------------------------! I ' TECHNICAL SESSION VI POST HllRVEST TECHNOIDGY ' CIJIFRI-CAS/MF/80/BP- 2C MID MARKETING: ' ------------------------------------------------------------------------TECHNOLOGY OF PROCESSING MUSSEL MEAT K. K. BALACHArmRAN AND P . V. PRABHU Central Institute of Fis rnries Technology Cochin- 682029 INTRODUCTION Green mussel (per.E!': viridis) and brown mussel CE. indica)are available in ~ubstantial quantities from the i r natural beds along the sOllth- east and south-west coasts of India raspectively. Mussel is . locally collected.foi' its meat which i s ~oQsu.Eled in the nearby areas . Mussel meat normally finds favo.ur with peo111e of low income group and that too when the fish ·is scarce o~ costly, which often results in poor economic returns to the collector. 'l'''ere are quite a large number of people engaged in it s col1.ection and, ti:sy together with the middlemen and. the act!J.al venders in the market and their dependents constitute a large nUlllber of people earning a living from mussel. Any poor respose from the mEzket directly affects the economi c and social status of these people and in turn their region as a whole . Why product development is necess~{? Even in the absenoe of aocurate stat i stical informat ion aboQt the ·availability of wild ouliured mussel , it is well known that there is the potential fo r a VErry large sustainable quantity available from the ••..•• 2 . \ - 2 -natural beds, the present rate of exploitation being far less than ' the potential av*ilability. The recent tempo in its culture stands a sure guarantee tor continued abllUdant availability . capture along with cui tura promises a greater q.l,anti ty flooding the markets which, if not met with ready demand from the consumer s, wi'll result in a further fall in its ya.lue as also "·/astage. Mussel meat, like fish, is a highly perishable commodity. One of the ways of ensuring reasona,ble returns to the producer is to convoJ;'t the mussel meat into stable processed products and market them in far off areas from the collection centres. Popular processed products from mussel meat 'I'here are several procecsed produ8ts known to be popular in several overseas countries, particularly Europe. Canned, frozen, marinated and light, smoked and dried are SOIre of the most popular proce- , ssed mussel products. Mussel rr.eat canned in oil or brine and pickled ei ther in brine or vinegar with or wi thOllt heat processing are widely used. If products conforming to the requi:r'e~nts of oveI'seas markets can be processI}d. mussel neat can even find re'Uly demand from such inarke'ts. hospects of t",atlPI,ortatic. n of fresh mussel or meat to distant areas can be given a fair tr'l'l.1. We have recently developed processes for converting fill'sRe 1 I!Emt int.o stable processed products. Adoption of these for p::-o10n~'~d T'~te"CVatj.cn :;tnri wider distr~bu.tion, coupled with transportation (.1' 'fro8h Il'ussel or meat are sure ways of ensuring ade(llate returns to those engaged in the trade and thus enhancing their economic sta.tus. STUDIES ON PRODUCT DEVELOBENT 1 . Purification Mussel is a sedentary animal found in the littoral and mblittoral rones where they are attached to rocks by means of byssus threads. They feed by the Jrechanism of filtration of microscopic food materials suspen-.d~din;the surrounding water. .At any given time their stomach will "dntail1 a 'lot of s a nd and other gritty materials which, if allowed i;~ 1eriJairi, will inpart grittiness to the end product . Besides, the ~~a&ta.iwaters are likely to be polluted by sewage water, industrial .• ' ~if1u~nts a8 well as human faeces. C'ontamination of the water and hence · .the·· m~~s"l ; ','L th . faecal , and pathogeniG bacteria, and to a leSser extent wi"th heavy metal's canno~ . be ruled out. Paralytic shell fish ppisioning, ' ttl~ugh ·n~t freqlJ.ent" is known to occur inb:i.valves in Atlantic ' waters • . H~wev'er; this is not considered so .' significant. in waters ' of tropic,,} , .' re'&i;~S; One" of the most inpor-tantprerequisites of any tyPe otprocess:., ingJ.s to plJ.rif y . the mussel. If the musse 1 i s bacteriologically polluted its purfffGation is . rather simple si nce the mussels cleanse themselves of all polluting · .•. baote;ia J;f they ~e kept in clean .sea water for a number of hours.. In.' '. spffie ' places' mussels are kept. in clean sea water in tanks o";'~r two . 0"·. • n..Lghts wlth a change of water on the second day (waterman) . The saIlE . ":', '. . . . " ' treatiDent" can also free the musse l of most of the sand from their ;,;tomach • . · It has'· been experimentally proved tha t russel kept alive in se'; w';'t~r ..• ' '. reir 24 hOtU-sfollowed by chlorination at 5 ppm leve l brings dovmthe ~andcontent to 0 . 02% on dry weight 1:)",,,; 9 of the rtBat , . (Balachandrad . and Nair; 1975): No faecal or pathogenic bacteria have beend~tected '. in ' so purified' musse ls. However a cor;tinllous;ooni taring oitha qua:lity ' ',ofIl)9 at and water in the s~oundings with respect to incidence of •. · • p8,ihcii,inicand faecal bacteria 'l,S well as oontami.n~ti:on vii th oo~~ metalS ' is al:)solutely necessary. The practice of keeping them ,.in - . clea.'1iilg taaks on the shore or of keeping them in cages or net bags on, .' p+a.tform~ left under- water in clean areas for' fe\''; days appe~: re.co~rnen­dable processes for cleaning mussels. It will be . ideal ' for grea,""r ' . safety to meek all bat.ches of ml1ssels so cleaned f qr, any probaple incidence of paralytic shellfish poisoning before reteasing for processing. - 4 -2. Product development i)Products for ~ophisticated markets a) Canning Mussel meat has J ,been found to render itself well for canning. The purified mussel is either heated in open vats or steamed in an autoclave and the meat is shuclred out. The shucke d meat is washed in water and blanched in 5% boiling brine for 5 minute s . Blanched meat is packed in cans. filled with either hot brine or oil, exhausted, sea med and m a t processed followed by cooling. This method has been foutld to yield a products with good organoleptic ani keeping qualities (Balachandran and Nair, 1975) . Under the conditions obtaining in South India the ava ilability of mussel !Jl> at being at places far away from the probable centres o,f canning, processing a,lvrays incolves an element of transportation over a considerable distance . Though transportation of live mussel appears ideal, it involves the transportation of the bulk of shell which is a waste material (fnd thcts adding to the co s t . Therefore some studies have been undertaken on the shelf life of mus sel, whole or meat, and transportation of vr role mussel and meat in i ce under di f ferent conditions subsequently to be used for c anning . T~e sB s tQdies hav e prOVed tha t canned products prepared out of whole mLcs s31 or fresh shu_cked Jre a t yielded canned products with good org2~t"Ycle:9ti.c characteristic s when iced and stored upto2 days . The De p-rOdU8-GS had better colaur, flavour and juiciness of the IlEat compared to e a rned meat prepared out of similarly iced,stored,boiled a nd shucked IT~at (Balachandran a rn Prabh~, 1980). b) Freezing Helatively little work has been carried out in the field of freez~ ing mussel mea t . Chinnamma George (1974) working on the frozen storage characteristics of mussel rooat reported that frozen meat prepared out of whole musse 1 -iced stored for 8 days remained in acceptable condition only upto 15 vleeks whereas fresh frozen l1E at remained in acceptable condition for 40 weeks ~ ...• 5· - 5 -ii) Importance of ~ussel meat in human nutrition and product develop-ment.j..£vol·~:\on!L low cost technology for the local =kets. Meat of green mussel (;E. viridis) has the following proximate compo si tion Moisture' ,% 78.24 80.28 Protein % 11.08 - 12.61 Filt % 2.38 - 3.02 Glyoogen % 5·36 - 7.91 Ash ?~ 3.06 - 4.21 The sweet flavour of mussel meat, owing particularly to its relatively high content .of glycogen, i's comparable to that of prawns, crab etc. That is much cheaper compared to the price one has to pay f'or the above comrr-tOdi ties at the sane time meeting same or similar nutritional requirements makes mussel rreat poor man's delicacy. Wider distribution of mussel meat into areas where there is deficiency of protein in the diet of people, can go a long way in bridging the protein gap 'particularly of animal protein. This requires the c~evelopment of low cost technology for preparation of inexpensive stable processed products. This 'a!lpect is engaging the F..ttenticn 0 f sdlientists and tech-nologists aud-a number of such prod1lcts bave already been developed. a) DrieiLmussel meat The cheapest lIBthod of preservation applicable to mussel meat " to yield a stable product with rep-senable shelf lEe if drying. Meat shucked from fresh purified nussel after blanching in 5% boiling brine for 5 minutes is dried by spreading in trays either in sun or in an artificial dryer until the moisture level reaches 1010 or below. After allowing the moisture to equlibrate by keeping in a closed container for a day or two it can be packed and distributed. The storage life of this product has been estimated to be around six ~~nths. After reconstituti-ng by ooaking in water for 30 minutes this can be used for any culinary preparation as is done with fresh meat (Anon, 1980). . .... 6. - 6 -b) Smo!~~ dried mussel neat A product for which there a lready exists demand from overseas markets and also can have demand from the do~estic consu~~rs is .light smoked and dried musse 1 mat . Method of preparation involves drying '. . . I of' blanched mussel meat is the SUrl or artifioial dryer for an hour (until the rooisture level comes to 40- 45%) follovied b,r smoking in a kiln .for half an 110ur and f urther drying to a moisture level of 1010 or below. After ' equili~ration of the mo isture in the dried product as is done for dried mussel meat, the product can be packed for distribution. :Li ght smoked 'and dried mussel meat tastes bette" comp=ed to heavy smoked one . Hence cold smoking for a shorte" pe"i od is ideal for this. Coamnut husk and saw dust C2.n be employed as source for generating smoke (Muraleedharan, !lair and Joseph, 1979). c) Mussel meat pickle Anotber product involving low cost technology for processing and which can meet with ready- demand from the conswuing public is mussel meat pickle. ThEre are several pickles made with vegeta:, les , fish, prawns ete • . alreadY popula" in the nnrket. DeJTI3,nd for diverse type of' pickle s i s ever i n =easing, pa"ticularly from the arban population . Method has been worked out for preparing mussel meat pickl e having a shel f life upto six months. A recipe for the pickle now being popularised is as follows : . '.1. Blanched mussel meat (of which the stomach is cut out) 2. Refined salt 3. Green chilly (cut into small pices) .4 . Gi nger (skinned and chopped) 5· Garlic (skinned and mashed) 6. Chilly powde" 7. Tux'meric 8 • Mustard seeds (Powdered) . . , - :. ': ' .... iKg 80 g (dissolved 80 g 70 g 50 g 75 g 2. g 15 g in 400 ml boiled and cooled water) . - 7 -9. Sesame oil 10. Vinegar (3-4 ml of fo od grade acetic acid in 100 ml boiled and cooled \'later 11. Curry leaves Method of preparation - 250 g - 250 g - as re'l.uired Blanched meat after cutting off the stokach portion is made into three or fOllr small pices and is fried in oil in low flame until the colour turns brown. Green chilly, ginger, cllrry leaves and garlic are fried in the . oil remaining in the pan after removing the fried meat. Then are - added chilly powder, tupmeric powder and mustard powder and the contents stirred well. salt solo.tion is added to ths mixture and brought to boiling. The fried meat is added to this mixture, the pan is. removed from the flame and when sufficiently cool is mixed with vinegar. The pickle is stirred well to make it uniform, cooled and packed in dry clean glass bottles. Care should be taken to see that no solid portion is left exposed. A layer of oil should be present at the top in the finally packed sampl es, (Muraleedharan, George Joseph and Devadasan 1980). A delictous product which c~~ be COu3umed as appetizer along with the South Indian preparation of 'dosai', 'iddli' and the like, mussel meat chutney powder, is easy to prepare, handle and store . Ths method of preparation employing the following recipe is as follows: Dried mussel meat Skinned black gram Red chilly Coriander Asafoet4.da Refined Sal t Recipe - 500 g - 500 g 75 g 50 g 5 g - to taste .. .• 8. - 8 -Dried meat is fried well in a pan until the colour turns brown. Other i ngredients exce:r>t salt are separately fried in order to render them ready- for powdering . All the ingredients are powdered well by pounding and mixed together with sufficient quantity of salt . The chutney powder so prepared should be packed in dry polythene bags or dr~ air tight bottles for safe storage. Mixed well with little warm coconut oil at the time of use this yields a delicious - chutney. (Anon, 1980) . e) Marinated mussel reat A prodUct- which involves low cost techno logy iii processing and is already popular in overseas markets is mussel meat marinated . A method of processing marinated mussel meat reported from U.K. is as follows . Live mussel is he ld in boil ing brine f or 4-6 minutes depending on size . Meat after shucking is held in weak brine containing 2-3% salt for 2-3 hI'S, drained and then packed in containers, typically glass jars, and covered with vinegar containing 4- 6% acetic acid . The vinegar for ccvering mllssels is often spiced before being added (R .McLay) . Stad.ies are underway at the Central Insti tllte of Fisheries Technology to work out a slli t able process of narinating mllssel meat having desirable organoleptic characteristics and good storage life. NEED FOR EXTENSION 7IORK IN POPULARISATION OF MUSSEl, PRODUCTS around Presently mussel meat is cOnfllmed fresh only in areas at or t he collection centres. Peo~le in other areas, more often than not, are not aware of this commodi ty as a nlltri tions food material, nor has any attempt since been made in popularising it in such areas , It is only recently that some attempts have been maeeto preserve mllssel meat into stable processed products by the application of low cost technology so ihat the comrrodities will well be within the purchasing capacity of rllral population. 'Any new product coming to the narket, particularly •.. 9. -9-based on raw materials like mussel, clams, oysters etc whidh are supposed to be low cost food of poorer section of the popul ation, is like ly to meet with some consumer resistance. Therefore it calls for an exhaustive extension progrrulliTe to educate the people of the importance of mussel meat a s a protein rich.food IlRterial and about the ways of cnnsnming it. There shonld also be a regnlar system of moni.toring feed back information on the oonsurrer 's reactions particular-ly regarding the acceptability of the products and the t>~e of i mprove -ments they would desire to have on the product as a whole so that the scientists gan devote their attention in improving them without deter~ment to its tlutritional CJ.uality and without additional drain on the pocket of the oonsumer . ANON . 1980 . Handbill on Lab to Land Programme on Mussel meat Processing. Central Institute of Fisheries Technology. BALACHANllRAN, K.K. and T.S. UNNIKRlSHUAN NAIR, (1975). 'Fish Processing In'lt,s.:try in_.Jndia '. 13-1 4 CFTRI, ~scre . Proe . ~. Feb-ruary , BALAClIANJlRAN, K.K. and P.V. PRAJ3HU (1980) 'Preliminary stUdies on Px'eservation and Transportd ..tion of green mussel (;?OTT§. vt~}t~}.:.~ ) I 0 Paper ¥·:'e88I!ted at the symposium ~i:.§~l {':~~a.£!~l ~~~~ 11'13.::' ~ }: ~ 01 . 1::.0, G. •• of Iud ia. 12 ·-12 J anu3,.r~r 1 COC ~lin . CHINNAI'Ji!.\ GEORr;S (1974) Fisl:. 1echnol., .2., (1;22. MCLAY, R., Torry Advisory Note No . 56, Torry Research Station, Aberdeen, Scotla nd. 11lJRALEEDHARAN, V., K. GEORGE JOSEPH and Ie. IlE:VAllASAN (1980) 'Pickled Products from green mussell . Paper presented at the syr~i!J.m on Coastal Aquactl1ture 1 Mar . Biol . Ass_~ . of'India. 1 2,...·j 8 J 2:,r.llary, Co chin Ml.TRALEEJ)YlARAN, V., T.S. ffifflIKRISENAN NAJR and K. GEOffiE JOSEPH (1979). Fi s h. Technol., 1§., (1 }29· WATER1MN; J.J. Torry ],dvisory Note No . 13, Torry Research Station, Aberdeen, Scotland • . . . .... 

Technology of processing mussel meat

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Technology of processing mussel meat

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