Collection and Analysis of Research Results and Industrial Experience on the salting and ripening of herring

Salted and marinated herring products are of great importance for the fish industry in the Nordic countries. The background for this production is herring caught in the right season and ripened by salting in barrels for several months according to old experience. Little scientific knowledge is however yet available for understanding the process
The aim of the project is to retrieve and process existing data from three Nordic laboratories by means of multivariate statistical analysis in order to obtain a better understanding of the main factors (quality criteria) that govern the salting and ripening of herring, with the purpose of improving the economy in the industry and making the industry able to market products with consistently high quality.
In the project an overview will first be obtained of the results that the three laboratories have already obtained in numerous salting experiments on different herring stocks. Secondly, the scientific results will be pooled together. Thirdly, information will be collectively gathered by interviewing experienced people from the industry on the factors that are important for the salting and ripening of herring. The results obtained by the scientific studies and the experience from industry will be combined using sophisticated statistical methods (multivariate analysis). The final step will be to present the results in a workshop to the industry.