Fish processing
Another natural subdivision is into primary processing involved in the filleting and freezing of fresh fish for onward distribution to fresh fish retail and catering outlets, and the secondary processing that produces chilled, frozen and canned products for the retail and catering trades.
Fish is a highly perishable food which needs proper handling and preservation if it is to have a long shelf life and retain a desirable quality and nutritional value.
[4] When fish are captured or harvested for commercial purposes, they need some preprocessing so they can be delivered to the next part of the marketing chain in a fresh and undamaged condition.
The equipment and procedures in modern industrial fisheries are designed to reduce the rough handling of fish, heavy manual lifting and unsuitable working positions which might result in injuries.
This decreases fouling of water with metabolic products (ammonia, nitrite and carbon dioxide) that become toxic and make it difficult for the fish to extract oxygen.
They are designed to inhibit the activity of spoilage bacteria and the metabolic changes that result in the loss of fish quality.
[6] If the temperature is decreased, the metabolic activity in the fish from microbial or autolytic processes can be reduced or stopped.
There are key issues with fish cold store design and management, such as how large and energy efficient they are, and the way they are insulated and palletized.
It is a safe cooling method that keeps the fish moist and in an easily stored form suitable for transport.
It complies with HACCP and ISO food safety and public health standards, and uses less energy than conventional fresh water solid ice technologies.
In more recent times, freeze-drying, water binding humectants, and fully automated equipment with temperature and humidity control have been added.
Cooking or pasteurizing does not completely inactivate microorganisms and may need to be followed with refrigeration to preserve fish products and increase their shelf life.
Sterilised products are stable at ambient temperatures up to 40 °C, but to ensure they remain sterilized they need packaging in metal cans or retortable pouches before the heat treatment.
This can improve preservation and reduce unwanted side effects such as the denaturation of nutrients by severe heat treatments.
[11] "The search for higher productivity and the increase of labor cost has driven the development of computer vision technology,[12] electronic scales and automatic skinning and filleting machines.
ISO defines quality as "the totality of features and characteristics of a product or service that bear on its ability to satisfy stated or implied needs.
Adequate training of both industry and control authority staff must be provided by support institutions, and channels for feedback from consumers established.
Ensuring high standards for quality and safety is good economics, minimizing losses that result from spoilage, damage to trade and from illness among consumers.
Accurate assessment and prediction of fish quality are of main importance to set prices, increase competitiveness, resolve conflicts of interest and prevent food wastage due to conservative product shelf-life estimations.
In last years, research in food science and technology has focused on developing new methodologies to predict fish freshness.
HACCP is a sufficiently flexible system to be successfully applied at all critical stages -- from harvesting of fish to reaching the consumer.
For such a system to work successfully, all stakeholders must cooperate which entails increasing the national capacity for introducing and maintaining HACCP measures.
"[13] "However, despite the availability of technology, careful consideration should be given to the economic feasibility aspects, including distribution, marketing, quality assurance and trade barriers, before embarking on a value addition fish process.
What emerged was a picture of "a pile of fish gutted and processed in a size-dependent manner, and then stored for future consumption or trade.
