SBIR-STTR Award

The natural occurring variation in fish fillet weight result in overweighs Give Away in the product packages. Buyers prefer uniform serving sizes, which currently are difficult to achieve. The injected solids will be the under utilized trimmings from the fillet operation. The goal of the effort is to develop a technology that can increase the under-weight fillet weight by at least 10 nd result in an overall yield increase from 5 to 10 OBJECTIVES: Fish fillets produced from wild caught and farm raised species varies in weight, which is less desirable from a marketing point of view. Further in the filleting process the fillets are trimmed to achieve the Commercial Cut. These trimmings, that can exceed 10% of the final fillet weight, are currently discarded. We are proposing the development of a technology that can incorporate the trimmings into undersized filled thereby utilize the undervalued fish trimmings and produce fish fillets with a uniform weight. Needle injection technologies are used extensively for adjusting fillet weights through injection of different Marinades. These existing technologies, however, are not suitable for incorporation of pure fish meat due to its high viscosity. APPROACH: The proposed technology involves cooling of the fish meat (trimmings) followed by an injection by a high velocity piston driven injector. Aside from being able to handle highly viscous products the equipment does not penetrate the fillet, which is a benefit from a sanitation point of view. The technology involves rapid firing allowing for insertion of small individual fish pieces in sizes that will be acceptable to consumers. The weight adjustment can be regulated by the number of injections. The proposed research will concentrate on developing the nozzle interface with the fish fillet and the cooling and delivery system to the injector nozzle. The development effort will be carried out in collaboration with a seafood processor to determine the commercial potential, and in collaboration with the staff at the Fisheries Industrial Technology Center, Kodiak to evaluate the organoleptic and physical properties of the treated fillets

Production of fish fillets results in cut-offs of high nutritional value but of little commercial value. The project purpose is to develop a technology that can incorporate the currently wasted meat into the fillet production. OBJECTIVES: 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. APPROACH: 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.