Substitute For White Of Egg From Surplus Of Fish

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 13, Issue 62, 9 March 1949, Page 3

Substitute For White Of Egg From Surplus Of Fish

The Fats Research Laboratory of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research has recently carried out successful experiments in making from fish a substitute for the white of egg. The substitute can be used as a constituent of ice-cream, icing for cakes, whipped cream, butter cream, American cakes and for industrial purposes in plastics, textiles, leather dressing and other products. - 4 The process is of German origin (the substitute is known by the German name for egg-white—-“eiweiss”), and it was recently reported that a pilot plant was successfully producing this material in Great Britain. Substitute Produced , The New Zealand Marine Department, realising the advantage of utilising the seasonable over-supply of fish, approached the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, and from fish caught around our shores the chemists of the Rats Research Laboratory produced the substitute on a laboratory scale. Broadly, the procedure is to fillet the fish, and to digest the fillets with diluted acetic acid in order to remove colagen and other impurities. The material is washed, then made free from oil through extraction with alcohol—thereby taking away the fishy taste and smell—and after drying and grinding it has now reached the stage of a whitish fib-

rous substance consisting mostly of fish protein. Next it is hydrolysed (that is, it is turned into a watersoluable product), and this is accomplished by a caustic soda solution. After neutralising the excess of caustic soda with acetic acid, the material, .which is now of viscous syrupy consistency, is dehydrated, and is finally ground'to give the soluble albumen substitute—eiweiss. The Fats Research Laboratory put the substitute to one of the most severe tests. Meringues were made of it in a Wellington bakery and were compared with those made with the white of egg. This confection, being made enitrely from eiweiss, sugar and water without artificial flavouring, would allow any fish taste or smell to be immediately discerned, but the result was quite favourable, the colour was good, and the whisking properties of the substitute were as good or better than the genuine produce. Satisfactory Result The successful result of this exacting test gives promise of the substitute’s being satisfactory for other purposes as well. Economically, production on a large scale would easily compete with the expensive imported albumen, especially as it would utilise fish that might otherwise be wasted.

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