Icelandic high-tech systems supplier Skaginn 3X will be showcasing its new ValuePump™ at this year’s European Seafood Exposition in Brussels, presenting this combination of ideas as a system that has a wealth of possibilities.
The concept behind the ValuePump is a large-gauge spiral that forms the body of the system, which provides opportunities to apply a range of functions while fish are in transit from input to output.
“What we have here is a pump, with the added capacity to shorten bleeding times significantly as the fish pass through it,’ explained Skaginn 3X’s founder and CEO Ingólfur Árnason.
But that’s just the beginning. While the ValuePump can be used to bleed fish effectively and fast, this offers opportunities to chill, freeze, defrost, disinfect or cook fish in transit as it can cope with temperatures ranging from -20°C all the way up to 80°C, and the options include possibilities for transporting live fish as part of a delousing process.
“This offers possibilities for significant increases in productivity as the spiral configuration means that we can sub-chill fish two to three times faster using this method – in 15 instead of 45 minutes. Fish processing demands speed, and this is a tool that can get the fish to optimal condition very fast,” he said.
“In fact, this is a very flexible and versatile tool that can slot into a processing system. Two pumps would be enough to cover a whole factory’s transfer needs.”
He commented that the ValuePump itself is not complex technology, as it brings together ideas that Skaginn 3X’s engineers have already been working with, but the combination is what makes this special – and highly versatile.
“It’s not a fundamentally complex piece of engineering, although it uses much of the technology we have developed ourselves, such as heat transfer techniques,” Ingólfur Árnason said.
“It can handle everything from small fish up to 10kg fish – and that could be pelagic or demersal fish, wild fish or farmed fish, with a choice of treatments available during the transfer,” he said.
“It’s a new tool in the toolbox, and the ValuePump can be large or small, depending on the requirement. This is something that can be placed in any existing processing line, and at the same time it provides opportunities for fish transfer between points in the production system.”
During trials, fish were frozen in the ValuePump to a below zero surface temperature, while the fish itself is kept at the optimum temperature for processing. The fish were filleted as the final stage of the test, with positive results.
“Once the fish has been chilled like this, it goes through the filleting process much better. The ValuePump’s cooling efficiency is very good, and it’s part of our mission to extend shelf life,” Ingólfur Árnason said.
“The mission is to get as close as we can to a 30-day shelf life with efficient and effective chilling,” he added.
“The trick is knowing that we can’t improve quality. We can only preserve it and the key is to delay degradation, starting as quickly as possible after slaughter. We can do this post-rigor, although it’s more effective to start pre-rigor, and we have to fix the quality at that point to be able to maintain it for as long as possible – and this is a big step in that direction.”
