A new imaging system is drawing attention for its ability to accurately classify and sort frozen tuna

Processing, sorting and categorising fish are essential steps in the seafood industry, helping to ensure that fish are sorted in a way that maximises their economic value, and that only the best quality fish are sold to consumers.

However, performing these steps manually can be challenging. For example, manual sorting relies heavily on workers’ skills and judgement, which can potentially lead to inconsistencies in product size and weight. The work is also time- and labour-intensive, especially when large quantities are involved. There is also a high risk of contamination. With more hands required to hasten the manual sorting process, the risk becomes higher, compromising product safety and hygiene, and reducing the quality of products that are released to the market. Finally, the need for workers and longer processing times drives up operation costs and, as a result, the price of the final product, while inefficiencies in manual sorting can lead to more waste and extra work, further adding to production expenses. The proper visual classification of fish is also a difficult undertaking, especially when they have been frozen. Differences between species become practically impossible to detect reliably without exhaustive testing.