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Ice, freezing, vacuum packing used for fish, by-products’ preservation
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Tuesday, 03 September, 2019, 08 : 00 AM [IST]
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Poonam Bhosale
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The first ever fish processed by humans was during the medieval times. The term fish processing stands for the process related to fish and its byproducts during which the fish are harvested or caught, and further are delivered to the consumer. However, the term fish processing generally refers to the actual harvesting of aquatic organism, may it be wild fish or aquaculture fish, for commercial purpose.
Big fish processing organisations usually run on their own farming operations or fishing fleets. The fish products are generally purchased by grocery chains or by intermediaries. An overall concern of fish processing is to avoid fish from rotting, and this is going to be a permanent topic of concern at the time of diverse processing operations.
Fish processing can also be sub-categorised into fish handling, that is, the primary process of raw fish, and the making of its byproducts. Another sub-categorisation is into preliminary processing associated with the freezing and filleting of fresh fish for further distribution to catering outlets and fresh fish retail, and the secondary processing services that manufacture frozen, chilled and canned products for the catering and retail industry.
There is a common process for fish preserving to maintain its quality by keeping them live until they are matured enough to eat and cook. It’s been thousands of years that China has accomplished this with the means of carp aquaculture. Other processes utilised to preserve fish and its byproducts include:
Management of temperature using ice, freezing or refrigeration
Management of water activity by salting, drying, freeze-drying, and smoking
The microbial loads’ chemical control by adding acids
The microbial loads’ of physical control by the means of ionising irradiation and microwave heating
Oxygen dispossession, like vacuum packing
In general, more than one of these procedures is utilised. While it is about frozen
or chilled fish or its byproducts are transported, the cold chain should be maintained. This transportation needs insulated transport vehicles or containers and sufficient refrigeration.
Modern Day Tech Advancement in Seafood Domain
In recent years, the global demand for seafood has grown due to its extraordinary nutritional characteristics. As per the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (UN FAO), processed seafood has the major sharing of 92% of the complete seafood consumption for food in developed nations and in developing nations, out of total seafood consumption, 53% of share is of seafood product.
To assure the quality of edible raw material, processed and fresh seafood is not at all an easy task as it sounds like, and seafood should get processed with utter care and consideration during the whole cycle—from capturing the fish till it completes its last processing step.
In recent times, seafood processing techniques are also responsible for the manufacturing of new byproducts from seafood. Simultaneously, the process to manage all the various aspects of quality of food needs to be streamlined, not just from fresh food but for the processed fish product as well.
Clean Fish Processing Technologies
Worldwide, people have a lot of interest in the food system which has seafood on the list as well and how it impacts the associated environment. This interests people mainly because of the way environment impacts lifecycle analysis associated with the consumption. The outcome demonstrates that the production of food and its utilisation leads to 20%—about 305 of diverse impacts on the environment are associated with an individual’s consumption, which involves the complete food production and distribution chain.
Quality Analysis of Processed Fish and Byproducts
Quality is a very complex yet most important concept with numerous context and dimensions are involved. It can be explained as it is required to satisfy the expectations and needs of the consumers, and it can be categorised into 13 various consumer’s needs.
The first group involves safety, nutritional, commodity and sensory needs and further involve the way of communication in between consumers and products, as users can see them. The second group constitutes of things in which the item is thought of as an item of trade, which includes guarantee, packaging/product system, as well as market/product system.
Various Procedures of Fish Processing
There are a lot of ways to process fish that have advanced and improved with the involvement of technological advancement. There are few procedures like salting and drying which have been utilised for a long time, even before the advent of technology. Other process involved the utilisation of electrical devices and chemicals. But regardless of the type of process, the fish should be fresh which is to be processed. Some methods of fish processing are Salting; Smoking; Drying; Curing; Dehydration; Pickling; Cooking; Canning.
Role Enzymes Play in Fish Processing Technology
A lot of enzymes are utilised in fish processing and quality management process. Along with the role enzymes play in the processing, several enzymes also utilised for biosensor framework for a fast analysis of fish quality. A lot of enzymes got extracted from the wastes developed at the time of industrial fish processing. Extracting such enzymes helps in both waste management as well as offering unique tools for processing fish and its byproducts.
Rise of Tech Advancement in Fish Processing Industry
The fish processing technology is utilised in several diverse ways to explain different phenomena. To start with, it considers to the effect of technological advancements. It helps in enhancing the human well-being quantitatively which allows an increase in earning. The technological advancement creates opportunities for progression via the production of new byproducts, a new process of preservation.
The hunt for more efficient productivity and the increase in labour charge has given a push to the development of technology and electronic devices like filleting machines and tools for automatic skinning.
Reach of Tech to the Next Level of Advancement
Nowadays, the technology is changing or rather say improving very quickly. As 93% of fish consumption in a developed nation is covered with fish products; the coverage has reached 53% in developing nations. There are many researchers and engineers who are working in the direction of improving and making the fish processing technologies even better, to help preserve the fish for longer duration and simultaneously maintain or improve its characteristics like colour, flavour, and aroma.
The effort of making the process more easy and efficient with the advent of technology has already begun and a lot of businesses have adopted the new machines and technology. Soon, there will be the advent of AI in the fish processing technology, just like any other technology, which makes the process better with each passing day as AI will enable the technology and machines to understand the situation and process fish accordingly.
(The author is a freelance writer who writes for various publications. She can be contacted at punam.b.16@gmail.com.)
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