For over 25 years since first introducing slurry ice technology to the seafood industry, Sunwell Technologies Inc. of Canada has worked with fishermen and companies in the seafood processing industry to develop and implement total quality control processes using Deepchill Variable-State Ice.
The key to this process is maintaining the freshness of the seafood before, during, and after processing to ensure a high quality product. Better methods of fish preservation result in higher yields and fresher product, which translates into higher profits for the seafood processor.
Myre Maritim A/S of Myre, Norway, is one company that in 2004 integrated a Deepchill System into its existing 30 tonnes per day capacity, fresh fish processing facilities. They process primarily cod, but work also with a variety of other white fish. One Deepchillâ Variable-State Ice System can deliver ice in a complete range of ice-states: from very liquid ice slurry, to a very thick paste, and even dry (liquid free) ice crystals.
The system at Myre Maritim uses fresh (salt-free) make-up water to produce as much as 12 tonnes of dry ice, or larger volumes of Deepchill slurry ice per day. It provides ice for two different stages of fish preservation at the facility: chilling in the fish receiving tanks and packing in boxes for shipping. Fish are packed in deepchill and shipped fresh, via truck, to markets across Europe. Fish arrive at the pier-side facility on fishing vessels and are unloaded into three 10-tonne receiving tanks.
These tanks are half-filled with Deepchill slurry with a 40 per cent ice fraction (percentage of ice in the slurry), to quickly cool the fish down to approximately 4C, and preserve it until it can be processed. During processing, the fish are removed from the receiving tanks, gutted and heads removed, separated by size and placed into Styrofoam boxes.
The boxes are sent along a conveyor belt to the Deepchillâ„¢ Filling Station. A flick of the meter switch causes a measured amount of Deepchill with a 70 per cent ice fraction to discharge from a nozzle, into the boxes. Deepchill is discharged into either end of the box, on the cod tails and top end of the body, but not on the main body of the cod, because the very sensitive cod skin would turn grey if it stayed in contact with ice during shipping. The soft Deepchill slurry at either end of the box provides excellent cooling without causing any damage to the delicate cod skin surfaces thereby preserving its quality and value. In addition, the Deepchillâ„¢ acts as a seal to keep out bacteria on the exposed end of the cod where the head has been removed, preserving it even further.
Mr. Olav Lassesen, owner of Myre Maritim A/S, had two goals for the Deepchill™ System when he originally contacted Sunwell's Norway representative Midt-Troms Kjøleservice A/S. These were to further improve the quality of their fish and to automate and simplify the packing process. Lassesen is pleased that both these goals were achieved. He cites one specific incident with a large client in Belgium as an example of the improved quality. At approximately the same time the Deepchill System was being installed, the client contacted Lassesen to cancel all future shipments. The reason -- the flake ice used to pack the cod at the time would shift during shipping and spread across the body of the cod, causing skin discolouration and poor appearance. Lassesen quickly shipped four new boxes of cod, this time packed using Deepchill. That one shipment regained the client's confidence and business. As for the second goal, being able to pump Deepchill into the receiving tanks and into the fish boxes has had significant labour savings over the previous method of manually moving and shovelling flake ice into 3000 boxes a day. Lassesen jokes, "If I were to tell our people they have to use traditional flake ice instead of Deepchill, they would get angry. We have definitely profited by using the Deepchill ice."
