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Fish Meal
About the Fishmeal Process
Gone are the days where the trash fish is utilized for the fish meal production. Earlier the fresh fish that were not supportive for human consumption lead to the manufacture of fish meal production. The fish that is diverted for the production of various byproducts such as the fishmeal is about one third of the total fish consumption. Normally the low priced fishes having less market value and those which are disliked in taste and flavour are reduced to fishmeal. This also helps in maintaining the civic problems in fishing industry. The Leading Fish meal producers in the world are Japan. Chile, USSR, Peru, USA, Norway, and Denmark. Of late, India is finding its place in this group. The company has made its name in “Quality†and “Capacity†in terms of production.
Fish Meal
The fresh fish is brought to the factory in iced condition. The icing is done depending upon the transporting time. The raw material is taken through the conveyors from the fish tanks through a metal detector (to catch the metal items) to the “Cookers†which makes use of indirect steam for cooking the fish in a temperature of 80-85°C for about 25-30min. The cooked fish is later pressed in “Screw Press†to separate Fish liquor (Press Liquor) and Fish solids (Press cakes). The fish liquor hereby termed as “Stick water†is collected in a stick water tank for further oil separation.
The press cake having 40-45% moisture is forwarded to the “Steam Drierâ€, so as to reduce the moisture to about 9-10% with the help of indirect steam at a temperature of 80-90°C inside the drier. The Dried fish meal is forwarded into the “Pulverizer†for converting into fine particle size. The fish meal is sieved in a “Siever†to remove the foreign particles/ bones/ scales and only the fine powdered fish meal is collected and passed through a cooler maintaining the output fish meal temperature at 27-30°C. In an aseptic environment the fish meal is packed directly into an inner coated polypropylene bag of 50kg capacity. The fish meal thus produced is stored in a well maintained Godown.
Most of the equipments for the production of fish meal are manufactured and imported from china. The conveyors that are used in the production line are all Stainless steel materials.
The shelf life of the fish meal is increased by adding antioxidant (Ethoxiquin) in recommended dosage.
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