II. Final Products after Fish Processing
Fish processing can be subdivided into fish handling, which is the preliminary processing of raw fish, and the manufacture of fish products.
---Fish products for preservation
As mentioned above about fish preservation, this kind of fish products are dried fish, salted fish, and smoked fish.
---Products of raw fish
1.Drawn fish: a whole fish has its internal organ removed
2.Dressed fish: fish that has been scaled and eviscerated, and ready for cook
3.Pan dressed fish: a dressed fish with no head, tail and fins to fit in a pan
4.Filleted fish: boneless fish flesh that is cut lengthwise from the fish along the backbone; it is popular in western countries for its little preparation for cooking
5.fish steaks: large dressed fish can be cut into cross section slices, usually half to one inch thick, and usually with a cross section of the backbone
6.Fish sticks: pieces of fish cut from frozen fish fillet blocks into portions of 3/8-inch thick
7.Fish cakes: packed or frozen cake-shaped product that is prepared from flaked fish, potatoes and seasonings
---Products with value addition:
Surimi and surimi-based products are prepared from the mechanically deboned, washed and stabilised fish flesh, and they are intermediate product used in the preparation for some ready-to-eat sea food.
Fish meal is product made from fish, and bones and offal of processed fish. It is a kind of brown powder or cake obtained by drying the fish or fish trimmings. If the fish is fatty, it can be pressed to get fish oil.
III. Mechanical Fish Processing Machines and Equipment
---Fish Refrigeration Equipment for Transport
For supplying the distant market, fish and fish products is chilled and frozen, and then transported by road, rail, sea or air. So it is essential that the cold chain is kept operating throughout, which requires the utilization of transport vehicles or insulated containers with adequate quantities of coolants or mechanical refrigeration. Container technology has made it possible to combine refrigeration with a modified or controlled atmosphere.
---Processing Machines for Fish Products
The need for higher productivity and the increase of labor cost have driven the development of automatic scaling, skinning and filleting machines, etc.
1.Fish grading machine: it can finish sorting fish by sizes. Grading by species has to be done manual operation.
2.Automatic fish scaling machine: fish scale has to be removed before serving, it is the work that the fish descaling machine does.
3.Fish cleaning machine: this facility is able to have a full cleaning of fish by fish back dissecting, fish guts removing, membrane cleaning, etc.
4.Fish cutting machine: to meet the different processing requirements, usually fish needs to be cut into different shapes of fillets, slices, segments, strips, blocks. etc., and fish cutting machine can help this.
5.Fish flesh separator machine: it can achieve collecting fish flesh from fish bones, which is a requisite management for fish ball, fish noodle, fish gelatin, etc.
6.Fish drying machine: with demands for the improvement in quality of dried fish, there has been a great deal of research on the development of the advanced drying machine with mechanical function. Microwave meat drying machine and hot-air drying oven are the two kinds of mechanical dehydrating equipment used in industrial fish processing.
7.Fish brine injector: this machine works by injecting saline and seasonings in to fish flesh evenly and continuously to complete fish salting and pickling.
8.Fish smoking machine: Due to the aquaculture production increase as well as the request for high-quality products of people, the need for developing modern fish smoking machinery and techniques is necessary. Automatic fish smoking machine has replaced the traditional smoking machine and technology by employing improved smoking method to process fish in a more health and sanitary way than the traditional smoking method.
