According to Brewer, the results of her experiments have been encouraging. "Salmon is very mild, and the toddler dinners, which are 27 percent meat or fish, don't taste or smell fishy at all. They remind me of that salmon and cream cheese dip you have during the holidays."

Besides, could 107 parents of preschoolers be wrong? In a recent sensory panel conducted in the scientist's lab, parents found little difference in taste between formulations that contained roe or bone meal and those that didn't. Eighty-one percent of the parent panelists-even those who don't eat salmon themselves-said they would offer it to their children after taste testing the product.

"It's not enough for mothers to know that toddlers need fish in their diets. They won't buy a product unless it also appeals to the eye and the taste buds," she said.

"Our goal is to deliver maximum nutrition in an entr-e that's aesthetically pleasing, and these studies show that we can do just that," she added.

The paper on including salmon roe in salmon baby food products was published in the May 2010 issue of the Journal of Food Science. The sensory panels study has been accepted for publication in an upcoming issue of the Journal of Food Science.

Source: University of Illinois College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences