Seal oil, a nutritious and highly valued traditional food, is used as a dipping sauce in Native households in Alaska.
To provide state-certified traditional foods for elders living in senior facilities, the Kotzebue-based Maniilaq Association and the state formed the Alaska Seal Oil Task Force in 2015.
With about 27 members, including Alaska Sea Grant seafood specialists Brian Himelbloom and Chris Sannito, the team is exploring oil-rendering processes that avoid botulism, to meet state food safety requirements.
They brought in Eric Johnson, a world expert in food toxins at the University of Wisconsin, who tested the traditional process. After two years of lab work and meetings the team is getting ready to wrap up its work. They have one more set of experiments to do, said Sannito.
“The end result will likely mean that the same process that has been used for thousands of years can go on as usual, with a spoonful or two of food-grade acid added to the bucket in order to immediately lower the rendering pH to a safe level,” Sannito said. “We expect confirmation by late November 2017.”
