If sales at the University Farm Market are any indication, the new tomato-based salsa produced by a team of food science specialists at California State University, Fresno will be a winner in the broader consumer market. More than 400 jars of the salsa with the fresh cilantro taste sold out during the summer, reported professor Dennis Ferris of the university’s Department of Enology, Food Science and Nutrition. More salsa should be available this month for purchase and for continuing shelf-life studies.

The salsa project began about two years ago with support from the California Agricultural Technology Institute’s Center for Food Science and Nutrition Research (CFSNR). A key objective of Ferris and students Karla Carlsen and Ernesto Duran was to retain the flavor of fresh cilantro in a processed tomato salsa. By using the microwave vacuum drying (MIVAC) process patented at Fresno State, the product team was able to dry the cilantro separately from the salsa mixture, process the salsa, then add the dried cilantro just prior to canning, retaining the fresh-cilantro flavor in the finished product, Ferris said.

"The short-term impact of this research would be to make a shelf-stable, fresh-tasting tomato salsa available to the local community through the farm market," Ferris explained. "The intermediate impact would be to make this same process and/or product available to food processors throughout California for production of salsa and other unique cilantro-based products."

Details of the salsa project are available in a newly-published CATI research bulletin entitled "A New Tomato-based Salsa." The publication may be viewed or ordered from the Research Publications: Center for Food Science and Nutrition Research section of this web site.

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{ CATI , CFSNR , CFSNR - Current Project , CFSNR - "Update" Newsletter , "Update" Newsletter -  1997 }

  

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CALIFORNIA AGRICULTURAL TECHNOLOGY INSTITUTE - CATI
College of Agricultural Sciences and Technology
California State University, Fresno