Introduction of a Data-Driven Approach for Salmon Fish Sauce Production

Abstract

　Today, information technology has enabled the accumulation of large amounts of data from social websites and the simple extraction of such data using search engines. The history of data extraction would reflect the people's interests and be useful to understand consumer behavior. On the other hand, fish sauce production is gaining interest because inedible fish materials and fish with low market value can be used to produce fish sauce; hence, many varieties of fish sauces are produced throughout Japan. This study aimed to give new value to salmon fish sauce based on data-mining of the internet activity of consumers and electronic sensor analyses of the products. Mining Google search activity indicated that Japanese consumers associate fish sauce produced in Japan with a limited type of dishes, namely nabe cuisine (a Japanese-style stew). It also suggested the increasing popularity of shirako as an ingredient in nabe cuisine. Based on these findings, we attempted to produce salmon fish sauce by supplementing the fermentation materials with shirako, as well as by using salmon of low market value. The products were evaluated with an e-panel, a combination of electronic nose (e-nose), tongue (e-tongue), and eye (e-eye) analyses. The results indicated that the fish sauce products made with low-quality salmon compared favorably to those made with high-quality salmon, and supplementing the fermentation materials with shirako does not significantly affect the flavor, taste, or appearance of the products.