Canadian processing company McGraw Seafood’s existing factory on the New Brunswick shoreline is to receive a significant upgrade with a new and automated redfish factory line – from receiving to automatic plate freezers, delivered by solutions supplier Carsoe Seafood ApS.
According to Denmark-headquartered Carsoe, the goal for the McGraw team was clear: to diversify production, create high-quality products and ensure the line is adaptative. The result will be a high-capacity packing and freezing multi-species line, set to be delivered by the end of summer 2025.
Regarding the requirements needed, Carsoe recommended using an automatic plate freezer for an efficient and continuous freezing flow. With this solution, the products are packed into 12.5 kg freezing trays before entering the complete automate section. The products are quickly frozen in the double-contact plate freezers and automatically prepared for packing, strapping, and check-weighing sections.
“Our goal was to implement a reliable freezing solution that would allow for consistent product quality while reducing manual handling,” said Nicolas Forget, Project Manager at McGraw Seafood. “The plate freezer allows us to achieve excellent product integrity and traceability while supporting the throughput required for this type of production.”
When adding a new processing line into an existing factory, space, constraint, and processing flow are always the most critical points to consider, highlighted Carsoe. The McGraw factory was originally designed for snow crab, and the redfish line is the new addition to the factory.
“This is one of the reasons why we chose Carsoe,” said Jake Augustine, General Manager at McGraw Seafood. “They presented a coherent, turnkey solution that matched our layout and constraints. Their experience in factory trawler retrofits gave us confidence that they could deliver a project tailored to our environment, in an area of our factory with limited space.”
Both the engineering team and the production team at Carsoe have been running at full capacity over the summer to deliver the factory on time. This ensured that the equipment was shipped on time from the production in Denmark.
“The delivery date of this factory is crucial, as we need to install the factory before the next season begins, Camille Gagné, Area Sales Manager at Carsoe remarked. “This is a tall order, but we are more than ready.”
The redfish line is expected to open new markets for McGraw.
