Deepchill provides added value to fishermen in Japan

And nowhere is the trend toward shipping high-quality fresh fish more prevalent than in the very demanding Japanese market, where much of the fish is eaten uncooked. There, some leading suppliers of fresh fish such as Yamahon and Daikoku have introduced new lines of fish chilled and

packaged in deepchill ice. One of the more recent converts to deepchill ice is Rausu Town in Northern Japan, which in 2001 installed a deepchill ice plant on the town pier, to serve the ice requirements of local fishing vessels.

Unlike traditional ice makers, deepchill equipment makes ice “micro-crystals” within a liquid brine solution. As a result, deepchill ice equipment has the advantage of being able to provide a cooling medium with different consistencies of ice concentration – from a very liquid “slush” solution with a low ice concentration to dry “crystal ice” with no

water at all. The system at Rausu Town was designed to provide deepchill in the dry crystal ice form. The system has a capacity of 30 tons/day and consists of three modular deepchill ice generators, one 40-ton ice holding storage tank and a pumping/control station.

The ice is usually harvested early in the morning. It is packed in sealed bags and sold at the local fish market to the fishermen. The fishermen take the bags of ice on their boats. During the fishing operation, some of the ice is placed in a large fish hold and mixed with cold seawater. As it is caught, the fish is placed into the ice/water mixture in the hold to maintain its freshness until it can be sorted. Salmon is the main fish species in this area, but the fishermen will sell whatever is caught.

Fish is scooped out of the hold, sorted by species and by weight,then placed into containers.

These containers are again filled with an ice and seawater mixture, using the remaining ice, and are then ready for auction at the fish market. At the end of the fishing trip, after the fishing boats have returned to the port and unloaded their catch, any remaining ice in the bags is dumped into the fish hold for usage the next day.

The popularity of deepchill ice in the area has increased ever since the ice plant has been in operation, because the local fishermen have realised that this type of ice has an excellent chilling effect on the fresh salmon.