Australia Launches World's First Seafood Flavour Wheel

THIS year, food lovers will be able to describe the unique regional flavours of their seafood with a sophisticated new sensory vocabulary, which forms part the world’s first seafood flavour wheel.

A team led by Dr Heather Smyth (right), a sensory scientist at UQ’s Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation (QAAFI), has described the key flavour and aroma characteristics of several popular seafood species from the Eyre Peninsular, South Australia.

Launched in Adelaide on 5 December, the flavour wheel identifies the region’s unique seafood characteristics using a sensory vocabulary created for retailers and producers to describe and market the appeal of their seafood.

For example, Eyre Peninsula blue mussels smell like a “fresh ocean breeze”; they are tender and sweeter to taste with a “savoury roast meaty with crustacean flavour”.

This new vocabulary is designed to help wholesalers, retailers, restaurateurs and foodies evocatively describe Australian seafood with terms and descriptions understood nationally and internationally.

As a commercial product, the flavour wheel is expected to boost the $3.4 billion Australian seafood industry* by encouraging consumer confidence, interest and awareness at point of purchase.

Australia produces more than 240,000 tonnes* of high-quality seafood annually, with South Australian seafood featuring bluefin tuna, yellowtail king fish, King George whiting, snapper, blue mussels, pacific and angasi oysters, southern calamari, Spencer Gulf prawns, Black-lip and green-lip abalone, southern rock lobster and sardines.

“It is well known that wines grown in certain regions have a flavour imparted to them from the environment and the same is true for seafood.” Dr Smyth said.

“The seafood grown in this specific region has a characteristic flavour from its unique ocean environment.”

Interestingly, the sensory data showed Eyre Peninsular seafood displayed a depth of complexity and flavour intensity not always found in seafood from other regions. This was combined with a common subtle herbaceous flavour characteristic in all the seafood from the Eyre Peninsula, described by their sensory tasting panel as snow pea or steamed broccoli.

“The appealing fresh herbaceous flavour was a common factor and is probably part of why this seafood region is so successful,” Dr Smyth said.

This project is an extension on previous research conducted by Dr Smyth in 2010 where she developed the first Australian native flavour wheel that targeted a concise, consistent and accurate marketing message of the flavours of Australian native ingredients for customers.

Dr Smyth has also proposed the development of a national prawn flavour wheel which will use the same sensory vocabulary to describe the different species, seasons and regions of Australian prawns.

The Eyre Peninsular Regional Development Board will lead the launch of the seafood flavour wheel which has been the product of a year-long project funded by the Fisheries Research and Development Corporation (FRDC) and the Queensland Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry.

CONTACTS

Dr Heather Smyth
Research Fellow, Centre for Nutrition and Food Sciences
Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation (QAAFI)
The University of Queensland
Tel: (07) 3276 6035

Email: h.smyth@uq.edu.au OR heather.smyth@daff.qld.gov.au

Inshore Fisheries Conference 2013 - Inverness

As part of the continued work on developing a sustainable and well managed fishery, Marine Scotland is hosting a conference for Inshore Fisheries on 8 February 2012 in Inverness. 

Throughout the conference, Marine Scotland will highlight the continued commitment of the Scottish Government to the fishery and engage with all stakeholders to hear their views. 

This conference will bring together the entire industry for the first time and provide an opportunity to share views and ideas, and to discuss the future management of this important fisheries sector for Scotland. 

Full details are provided in the online leaflet about the conference and you can register to attend through this link: 

Maybe we could muster the same support for the future of fishing in the UK?

The people of Britain did it for the forests of our beloved countryside. It would be good to think the fishing industry might one day garner this level of support!

Brilliant timeline graphic showing the strength of people power when given a voice via the internet and modern social networking tools like Twitter, Facebook, email and the voracity of viral networking.  

Fish tales: new art show at Two Temple Place trawls Cornwall's past

From oyster boat to pilchard-press, Roo Gunzi's collection of Cornish cultural treasures marks a sea change for one of London's grandest buildings Share38

Fisherman hauling in nets, pilchard-pressing devices, and d'Artagnan: it's the Cornish art survey of a lifetime, but it's not in the west country – it has just opened in a remarkable Victorian building off the Strand in London. Featuring paintings made in Cornwall in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the exhibition includes many that have been in store for decades, and one not exhibited for well over a century.

Pilchard driver in Mousehole oil on board by Christopher Wood

The same boat photographed steaming off Mousehole when hand lining for mackerel in 1978 

Two Temple Place was built in 1895 as a London bolthole for the American publishing and business tycoon William Waldorf Astor, later Viscount Astor, in truly startling gothic-Tudor-renaissance style. By coincidence the same architect, John Loughborough Pearson, was also responsible for Truro cathedral. Astor would have been astonished to see a Cornish oyster-fishing boat, on loan from the Maritime Museum in Falmouth, taking up much of the floor of his palatial library.

The building is now owned by a charity, the Bulldog Trust, which has launched a programme of annual exhibitions based on regional collections to open up the space to visitors. Palatial … Two Temple Place in London. Photograph: Will Pryce Curator Roo Gunzi, who's completing a thesis on one of the best-known artists, Stanhope Forbes, has worked in partnership with the Royal Cornwall Museum in Truro, but she has also tracked down paintings in private collections and museum stores all over the country. One gigantic painting by Forbes, showing the interior of a blacksmith's shop, normally hangs in the council offices in Ipswich. The artist began painting it on the spot, but was so overcome by the heat and smoke that he had to resort to reconstructing the scene in his Newlyn studio. Another huge canvas, a pair of horses drawing a block of newly quarried stone, has come from a private collection and hasn't been seen in public since 1905.

Another painting of "seine" fishermen dragging their catch was completed in 1897 by Charles Napier Hemy – after 14 years of making studies for it. It caused a stir when initially exhibited in London, celebrated as "a sea piece of the first order", but has been in the Tate stores for decades.

Gunzi has also borrowed some of the real objects painted by the artists, including a miner's barrow, an iron and granite weight for pressing pilchards, and a wooden box used to carry fish from the boats to be sold on the beaches. Detail from Henry Scott Tuke's Portrait of Jack Rolling (1858-1929). Photograph: The Tuke Collection Hilary Bracegirdle, director of the Royal Cornwall Museum, said: "It's a magnificent opportunity for us to have these pictures seen together anywhere, never mind in London – there is no county museum service covering Cornwall, so we're used to battling it out alone. I hope this makes people more aware of the cultural treasures that we do have in the county."

But visitors may find themselves helplessly distracted by the building, which has some of the most spectacular – if barking – interiors in London. While the exterior is startling – topped with a copper weathervane in the shape of Christopher Columbus's ship – the inside almost defies description, with a gemstone hall floor, stained glass Swiss scenes, and a frieze of characters including Desdemona, Bismarck, Lorenzo de' Medici and Mary Queen of Scots. And the mahogany staircase is adorned with figures from the book Astor considered the greatest ever written: Alexandre Dumas's The Three Musketeers.

"It certainly isn't the easiest of spaces to hang paintings in," Gunzi said, stepping back to look at a row of gnarled weather-beaten faces, portraits of people who would have been discomfited to find themselves in such grand surroundings. "But I think, in the end, it has worked surprisingly well."


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Venue: Two Temple Place, London Until 14 April

SHOULD YOU STILL EAT MACKEREL? - OF COURSE!

Rob Wing from Wings of St Mawes has been moved to post an article on his company web site to help put the mackerel story in context. As Rob explains, Cornish hand line caught mackerel does not even amount toa half of 1% of the TAC (total allowable catch) for the UK - that is 0.02% of the entire TAC for mackerel. Understandably Cornish handline fishermen feel agrieved that depsite their bnest intentions to serve a noble cause they are now being penalised by a system unable to take into account their place in the grand scheeme of things.

Hopefully, consumers are now able to make an informed decision based on this information.


Here's the full story from the Wing's web site:

"Mackerel has become a popular choice on menus for both restaurants and homes and justifiably so. Its flavour and relatively low cost are but two reasons for enjoying this humble fish but added health benefits are now understood by chefs and housewives alike.

Cornish line caught mackerel - less than 0.02% of the mackerlel TAC

Recent news from the MCS (Marine Conservation Society) is that mackerel should no longer be eaten regularly has angered Cornish hand line fishermen across the county. Cornwall's quota (amount to be caught) equates to the amount of fish a large industrial trawler might harvest in less that a nights fishing.

To help clarify and put this situation in to context; if the total allowed catch of mackerel for the EU inn 2013 were represented as 1 mile, the total Cornish catch of 2012 would be represented by the first 3.5 yards of that mile. This figures have been produce from local informed sources.

Total EU quota ()estimated) 250,000 tons 2013 
EU quota 336,285 tons 2012 
UK quota 166,765 tons 2012 
Cornish handline quota 1750 tons 2012 
Cornish handline caught in 2012 648 tons

The above figures show that The Cornish mackerel caught is less than 0.04% of the total UK quota allocated and 0.026% of the estimated EU total quota. If Cornwall catches the same amount of fish as last year it will represent only 0.019% of the total EU quota of 336,285 tons.

Anecdotally it is estimated that one large industrial vessel has the capacity to harvest around 1000 tons per nights fishing, so where is the logic in penalising our small boat local Cornish fishermen?

We believe in the sustainable way in which our Cornish fishermen catch their daily landings of mackerel. This century old method of catching mackerel, using one hook for one fish is never going to harm our mackerel fishery.

We strongly encourage our customers to continue to check the sourcing of the fish you buy, ask where it comes from and if necessary for proof of that source. The Cornish Fishmonger will continue to buy our fresh mackerel from Cornish fishermen working with handlines for the reasons set out above."

Rob Wing from Wings of St Mawes.

Sole, Lundy, Fastnet, Storm force 10 increasing hurricane force 12 imminent

Surfs up!

Evidence that the recent weather conditions are extreme - her world record holder in the surfing fraternity takes on what is thought to be a wave close to 100 feet in height - with the weather buoys recording 46 feet in open water the other day it hardly seems surprising!

Full story here courtesy of the Wired web site.

Weather so bad the biggest boats in the UK fleet are tied up!

The biggest pelagic boats in the UK fleet are currently taking refuge in Killbegs in Northern Ireland...

and can be seen on the VesselTracker AIS.