Technology for Controlling Net Weight of Fish Fillets

Processing of fish into fillets and in further processing into consumer portion packs results a significant amount of fish muscle being discarded. Although the quality of this discarded meat is equal to that of the fillet, the odd shapes and bone content makes it unusable directly in the production of fillets. The discards can amount from 10 to 30% of the produced finished fillet weight, and the goal of this proposal is to develop an injection technology that can recover these residuals for inclusion into the fillets. Injection technology has been embraced by the industry, and many processors have already installed injection equipment for marinating of products. The introduction of the proposed injection technology will therefore not be perceived as a drastic change that could offer major barriers towards implementation. The current available injection technologies are designed for handling of thin liquids (watery solutions). The proposed technology offers a radically different design in order to achieve treatments that simulate the natural muscle flake of the fillets. The technical aspect to be addressed in this project is to develop a technology for inclusion of residual fish meat from fillet production that: " Maintain the essential physical properties during the recovery and injection process " Provide volumetric control of the injectate to achieve a flake like volume in the injected fillet " Perform injectate distribution within the fillet that simulate a muscle flake in appearance " Achieve rapid injectate rates to achieve production rates that make the process commercial viable