Crytec chosen for research project

Crytec’s new liquid ice maker prototype will be developed during the first part of this project. The prototype will then be shipped to different countries around the globe and will challenge other cooling technologies in the seafood and poultry industries.

The Chill-On project will develop and integrate novel technologies to improve safety, transparency and quality assurance of the chilled/frozen food supply chain.

Innovative traceability and chilling technologies are the major aspects of the Chill-On project and Crytec claims to be the leader of cooling applications to the food industry. Crytec will use its experience to develop application protocols to different food products and to enhance food quality, extend shelf life and promote food safety in Europe.

During Chill-On the consortium will develop a new system which will trace and track food products (mainly fish) from ‘farm to fork’ and back. The system will be validated during the project in real life conditions in field trials of commercial fish farms and supplier operations.

Crytec has also just completed the final stage of previous R&D project Eureka. The work during this program laid down the foundations for the work in the new FP6 R&D project.

Crytec expects to continue to come up with new and innovative ideas which will be used in different food industries in years to come. The company says that it will keep investing in R&D because it believes that quality assurance and quality control will eventually direct the food industry to upscale food standards and public safety considerations.

Eureka promotes and partially finances European companies with mutual R&D interests to set up future business relationships and share data and knowledge between them. Eureka, through the Israeli Government Chief Scientist’s office, granted Crytec to advance the development of its new (third) generation pumpable (liquid) ice maker with high efficiency and reliability.

The University of Alaska is the latest institute to call on Crytec to analyse the benefits of slurry ice for pink salmon, for processing at land based plants as well as on vessels at sea. It is now conducting a two year study and comparing Crytec Bubble Slurry to RSW, CSW and Flake Ice.

Chuck Crapo from the university quotes “Continual quality improvement is needed in Alaska’s salmon fisheries to remain competitive in world markets. New methods are necessary to improve this quality. Chilling fish may be one area to deliver increase in quality through the use of technology from other food industries. Slurry ice using very small ice crystals to produce a ‘flowable’ ice may be a significant way to increase quality. The slurry ice system can chill faster and more completely due to the available surface area. “