A group of Icelandic entrepreneurs, GEverk, Jonas Finnbogason and Seagain, has developed and tested a new method to defrost block frozen H/G whitefish – an individual defrosting system (IDS).
This unique new method is very kind to the fish, using easy water circulation only, instead of air injection, and with considerably less use of hot water than other commercial block defrosting systems.
The key factor is that the block is first separated into individual fish which are then submerged into the smooth tank for final defrosting. Naturally this is less water and energy consuming – not to mention essential for nutritional quality and texture - to defrost single fish with direct access to their entire body, rather than whole blocks with basically two large surfaces.
In other commercial systems Seagain says that it has noticed a lot of foam development as valuable water soluble proteins and nutrients are washed out of the fish, but that this is not the case with the gentle IDS method.
Keeping the water soluble proteins inside the fish means better quality and yield. Seagain says that most block frozen fish is frozen pre-rigor onboard factory fishing vessels, and is therefore of excellent quality when defrosted correctly.
The company also offers pre-treatment stabilising methods for the defrosted fish prior to further processing.
