A fish company is a company which specializes in the processing of fish products. Fish that are processed by a fish company include cod, hake, haddock, tuna, herring, mackerel, salmon and pollock.
The United States, China, Peru and Chile have the highest number of fish companies specializing in fish processing. The Northwest Pacific Ocean is considered to be the most vital fishing zone in terms of volume caught and processed which results in the United States being regarded as the number one fish producing country.
In developing countries, the livelihood of over 500 million people depends on fish and seafood products.
Processing of fish
Stages in the processing of fish species are: sorting dressing cutting eviscerating skinning pre-cooking breading spicing blanching filleting salting packing
The steps that are applied by fish companies in the production of fish are: pretreatment filleting grading and trimming package storage
Fish processing can occur on the boat and fish processing vessels, and at fish processing plants.
Processing of whitefish
Whitefish is a fishery term used to define species with fins such as cod, hake, whiting, haddock and pollock. White fish has dry and white flesh and is easy to fillet.
Unlike oily fish, whitefish contains oil in their liver and therefore the fish can be gutted, trimmed and de-headed immediately after being caught, that is on the fishing vessel. After this process, the fish are kept in boxes and kept frozen by placing it on ice.
Upon arrival at the processing plant the fish are freed from ice and kept in chilled storage so as to preserve the fish for further processing. The fish are cleaned for blood, bones fins, black membrane, and fleas, loose fish scales, de-headed and graded according to the required size. This is known as the pretreatment and trimming stage.
The filleting process of the fish starts after the pretreatment and trimming stage. Fish filleting is either done by mechanical filleting machine or by hand. The machine which is used for the production of fish fillet has cutting knives which cut the fillet from the backbone and take out the collarbone. The filleting department and the pretreatment department are always separated from each other because ensures that workers from non-sterile pretreatment area are not coming across the hygienic filleting care area.
The trimming department is controlled by operational inspectors to ensure that the company has met the safety principles and procedures. If defects are found, corrective actions are taken by the food safety management. This is known as Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points (HACCP).
After the filleting process, skinning of the fish takes place and then the fish fillet is processed into end products such as frozen fish fillet, moulded loins fillet or smoked fish fillet.
The fish fillet may be divided into fish loins, fish fillet tail, etc. It is then packed in blocks and kept in cold storage.
Processing of oily fish
Oily fish have oils throughout their tissues and around the gut. Examples of oily fish are salmon, tuna, mackerel, herring and anchovy.
Oily fish is not headed and gutted on the fishing vessel because it contains oil and this can be hazardous as it will lead to oily surfaces. Thus, to minimize risk, oily fish are processed at the fish processing plant itself. The filleting process is almost the same the whitefish but oily fish is mostly used as canned fish.
Filleting by hand
In some fish companies, fish filleting is done manually. This way of fish processing involves high labor costs.
During the processing of fish fillet, the stages are same as the processing of whitefish but the fish are filleted by hand rather than machine. The fish is headed, gutted, de-iced and de-scaled. It is then graded and filleted by hand. After the processing phase, the fish fillet is trimmed for blood, bones fins, black membrane, fleas, loose fish scales and sorted. It is then packed and kept frozen in cold storage.
Food safety
Fish companies need food safety certification to ensure that the processing has been carried out in a healthy manner. One of the common certifications is Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points) (HACCP).
HACCP is a system which identifies hazards and implements measures for their control. It was developed in 1960 by NASA to ensure food safety for the crewed space program. The main objectives of NASA were to prevent food safety problems and control food borne diseases. HACCP has been used by the food industry since the late 1970.