Fish Processing

Fish catch:
• The total fish catch of the world is of the order of 90 millions tonnes
per year.
• The consumption of fish in India is about 7.7 kg per capita per year,
while is perhaps the lowest in the world. This may be due to fish is
eaten mostly by coastal areas.
• With increased fish catch by the use of modern techniques, the
development of fish-processing and better methods of storage and
better methods of storage and transport, there is likely to be an
increase in the consumption of fish.
Types of Fish:
• It is estimated that there are about 25,000 species of fish living today,
varying in size from very small to very large sharks.
• About 250 different species of fishes are used for edible purposes.
• Edible fishes are classified based on their anatomical differences.
Fishes having vertebrae with fin appendages, which help in balance
and steer the body in its movements through water, are termed as
finfish. The skin of these fishes is covered with protective scales and is
abundantly coated with mucous.
• Fishes without a skeleton but covered with some type of hard shell
are known as shellfish.
• Shellfish are of 2 types; molluscs and crustaceans.
• Molluscs have a soft unsegmented body while the latter
have segmented bodies. Molluscs are either partially or
wholly enclosed in a hard shell that is largely of mineral
composition. These include oysters, clams, scallops and
mussels.
• The crustaceans are covered with crust like shells and
they include lobsters, crabs, shrimp and crayfish. Edible
shellfishes are mainly saltwater fishes.
• The kinds of finfish differ on which waters they are found; fresh
and saltwater fishes. Saltwater fishes have a more distinctive
flavour then freshwater fishes. The common sea or marine fishes
available in the country are all types of shark, salmon, mackerel,
Bombay duck, ribbon fish, pomfret and tuna.
• Fishes from fresh water include sardine, mullet, catfish, perch,
pearlspot, etc.
• Fishes are also classified based on their fat content as lean,
medium and fat fishes.
• Lean: Bombay duck, halibut, cod, perch.
• Fat fish: salmon, sardine, mackerel, tuna, etc.
 Composition and nutritive value:
• The fat content of fish varies from 0.1% to 25%. Factors such as season,
sex and stage of maturity determine the fat content of fish.
• Liver and viscera constitute the location of fat deposit.
• The principal component of most fish oils are glycerides of fatty acids,
which make up to 95% of oil. Fatty acids, especially highly unsaturated
acids having 4-6 unsaturated linkages.
• Fish fat also contains cholesterol, lecithin, waxes and fatty alcohols.
• Fish is an excellent source of protein (20%). The muscles of lean fish
contains exceptionally high levels of protein, when compared to best
meat.
• Protein content of shellfish is lower as compared to shellfish.
• Fish contains some glycogen; shellfish containing a higher
proportion. The sweet taste of various fishes is due to glucose
formed from the glycogen by enzymatic action.
• Fish meat is a good source of copper, sulphur and phosphorus.
Saltwater fishes contains more iron than freshwater fishes.
Marine/salt water fishes contain 30 times more iodine than
fresh water fishes. Hence prevention of goitre is seen on
consuming marine/salt water fishes.
• Fish oils are richest known sources of vit A and D. Riboflavin
content is As much as present in beef. Both seawater and
freshwater are rich in niacin.
• Fish is rich in omega-3 oils, which protects people from
developing age related macular degeneration(AMD).
Fish spoilage:
• Fishes are highly perishable. Due to tropical and subtropical climate of
India, problem of fish spoilage is more acute as heat and moisture
promote deterioration.
• The reasons of fish spoilage are microbiological, physiological and
chemical in origin.
1. Microbiological: Salmonella and Vibrio vulnificus.
2. Physiological: Rigor mortis
3. Chemical: Fish as taken from water has little or no odour. But the
fishy odour is due to production of trimethyl amine by the action of
phopholipids and choline present in the fish. Also unsaturated fish
undergo oxidation and becomes rancid, and hence contributes to
the smell.
 Preservation and Processing:
• Before preservation, fishes are washed with clean water to remove slime,
blood stains, etc.
• Various methods of preservation are drying, salting, smoking, freezing and
canning.
• Sun frying is the most ancient of methods. Drying removes moisture from
tissues and helps in arrest bacterial and enzymatic putrefaction. This
method is not hygienic, there is an appreciable loss due to putrefaction
and spoilage.
• Salting is also used in India. In dry salting, fishes are rubbed with salt
powder and then packed in tubs with dry salt powder sprinkled in between
the layers of fishes. After a period of 10-20 hours fishes are removed and
washed in brine and dried in the sun for 2-3 days.
• In wet salting, cleaned fishes are packed in large vats containing
concentrated salt solutions and stirred daily till properly pickled. After
pickling of 7-10 days, the salty water that oozes out from fish is allowed
to drain off.
• Wet salted fish is not dried and hence not kept for longer period of time.
Sometimes these fishes are smoked.
• Disadvantages of sun drying and salting: Case-hardening, rancidity
development, colour changes, mould growth, and attack by insects are
some of the common defects seen.
• Chemicals such as acids, sodium benzoate and ethylene oxide and
antibiotic aureomycin can prolong the life of fish.
• Gamma irradiation prolongs the storage life upto 20-25 days.
• But the best way to preserve the quality fishes are freezing and canning.
• Freezing: Fish is gutted and frozen down to -29°C within 2 hours of catch.
In some cases clean whole fish are frozen, while for finfish fillets
(lengthwise cuts), steaks (crosscut section) are frozen. The storage life of
quality frozen fish, with a low fat content can be stored for 2 years.
• Some undesirable changes can also take place. Slow freezing can lead to
protein denaturation. As the water freezes in the fish, the salt
concentration of muscle tissue increases, which causes denaturation of
protein making it tough and rubbery.
• Another effect of freezing is drying or dessication. Drying is caused by the
transfer of moisture from the surface of the fish to the cold surface of
freezing equipment. Frozen fish will undergo rancidity. Hence wrapping
before freezing is necessary.
• Canning: while high-fat fish do not store in frozen state, oily fish are most
suitable ones for canning. Salmon, tuna, sardine, lobster, shrimp are canned.
Canning retains the natural flavour of the fish.
• The main objective of canning is to obtain a shelf-stable product that can be
stored in suitable containers for a considerable length of time without
undergoing food spoilage, while retaining desirable nutritional and sensory
qualities.
• The main steps involved in canning of fish are:
1. Raw Material Handling
2. Pre- Treatment
3. Pre- cooking
4. Filling
5. Sealing
6. Retorting
7. Post process handling
8. Storage
 1. Raw material handling:
• There is a direct relationship linking raw material quality and end product
quality. Because handling conditions immediately after catching are responsible
for the rapid loss of the "as- fresh" quality, the quality of canned fish suffers
whenever the raw material is temperature abused between catching and
thermal processing.
• Techniques which are recommended for the rapid inhibition of temperature
related spoilage in freshly caught fish for canning include:
• the use of ice which is applied directly to the fish;
• immersion in chilled sea water tanks;
• immersion in refrigerated sea water tanks
• freezing of fish harvested long distances from the cannery, or fish which is
received fresh or chilled but which is to be held in frozen storage until
processing.
• The main aspects to consider when handling fish are
• Rigor Mortis: When death occurs fish go through rigor mortis, outward
sign of which is stiffening of fish’s body. This cannot be stopped but can
be delayed by adjusting the storage temperature. After a period of time
rigor is resolved and fish flesh returns to being soft
• Evisceration: This is the removal of viscera (internal organs) especially
those of abdominal cavity. If a fish is not eviscerated the digestive
enzymes continue to function but without the controls which are present
when fish is alive, so the digestive enzymes digest the internal organs
including the belly wall which lead to condition called belly burst. Also
immediate evisceration leads to bleeding of fish, which in turn leads to
whiter flesh in final product.
 2. Pre-treatment:
• Pre-treatment covers the range of operations during which the product is
prepared for canning. Examples of pre-treatment include washing,
filleting peeling, cutting, brining and dipping. Each of these steps has the
common objective of bringing the raw material closer to the size, form or
composition required for retorting.
• All of the pre-treatments (particularly those in which flesh is cut.), must
be carried out under conditions of good manufacturing practice; which
means that the rudimentary steps of process hygiene should be
implemented. Satisfactory control of contamination from operating
surfaces, from viscera or from raw materials, is achievable with regular
cleaning (i.e., by washing the product and cleaning the line and ancillary
equipment) and/or by limiting the duration of exposure at temperatures
suitable for growth of spoilage microorganisms.
 3. Pre-cooking:
-Pre-cooking is usually carried out in steam, water, oil, hot air
or smoke, or a combination of these. It serves a number of
related functions:
• to partially dehydrate the flesh and prevent release of those
fluids during retorting which would otherwise collect;. in the
container;
• to remove natural oils, some of which have a strong flavour;
• to coagulate fish protein and loosen meat from the frame;
• to develop desirable textural and flavour properties; and
• to make the flesh of crustacea firm and aid their release from
the shell.
• As pre-cooking conditions affect yield and sensory quality it is
important that they be regulated. An excessive treatment tends
to reduce yields, whereas inadequate pre-cooking means that
the purpose of the treatment is not achieved.
• Pre-cooking can be combined with a dipping process,
particularly for products which require additives to impart
flavour or colour, or in order to modify texture through the
surface action of brines. Dips may be a source of
contamination, and if so, their quality should be monitored so
that they can be changed when necessary.
• During Blanching the fish takes up salt and its texture gets improved, the
fish flesh releases close to 30% of its water during blanching and
precooking. If fish is packed without removing this water, it will be
released in the can during heat processing, this will render the product
unattractive forming oil-water emulsion or diluting the sauce and will
contribute to spoilage.
• The main functions of precooking are:
• 1. causes sufficient shrinkage of fish to enable adequate filling in cans
• 2. improves texture
• 3. cleanses fish and reduces bacterial load
• 4. expels the respiratory gasses from tissues, thus helping to improve
vacuum in can
• 5. removes raw flavour of fish
 4. Filling:
• Whether filling operations are manual or automatic it is most
important that fill weights, and fill temperatures for hot fill
products, are monitored because both affect the rate of heat
transfer to the can during retorting. Because filling can be
critical to product safety, it is imperative that it be carried out
under strict control.
• Apart from the need for containers to appear full, headspace
is necessary so that thermal expansion, caused by heating
the product from filling temperature to processing
temperature, does not result in an excessive build-up of
pressure and damage to the seal.
• Under normal circumstances seams withstand the strains generated by
internal pressure, however, in extreme cases this causes permanent
deformation (known as peaking. or buckling) of the can end. Peaking is
unacceptable, as it carries with it an associated risk that the seam in the
vicinity of the damage will leak and permit ingress of contaminants,
particularly during cooling when the cans draw a vacuum.
• Since peaking is a consequence of excessive internal pressure in the can,
it can be prevented by controlling a number of factors other than
headspace, these include:
• fill temperature: the higher the filling temperature, the less the pressure
generated by heating the contents to processing temperature. As a
consequence of hot filling a vacuum forms in the container after thermal
processing and cooling;
• vacuum closing; cans and glass jars may be closed under a vacuum, which
has the effect of counteracting the increase in pressure caused by heating
the product in a sealed container. Vacuum closing is achieved by
mechanical evacuation of the container headspace gases just prior to
sealing, or by steam-flow closing, a process in which super-heated steam is
flushed across the top of the container immediately before the can end or
jar closure is sealed in place.
• Exhausting:
• It is a step in which air from headspace is removed prior to sealing the can.
• It minimises strain on cans and seams, created partial vacuum in the can,
removes oxygen which can cause oxidation of fats
5. Sealing:
• Central to the success of the entire fish canning industry is the ability
of canners to form hermetically sealed containers whether they be
made of metal, glass or laminates of plastic and/or plastic and foil.
Failure in this critical operation will mean that product safety and
shelf stability is at risk.
• Usually for metal containers double seam method is followed
• The double seam is a hermetic seal formed by interlocking the can
body and the can end during two rolling actions. The first action roll
curls the edge of the can end up and under the flange of the can body
and folds the metal into file thicknesses while embedding the flange
into the compound. The second action roll flattens and tightens the
seam so that a hermetic seal is formed.
• It is important that sealed containers be indelibly coded with details of
the production date and time, product codes, the manufacturing plant
and any other information that is necessary to identify the origin and
nature of the product.
• Can washing:
• Cans leaving the seaming area may have pieces of fish, sauce stuck on
the outside. These can clog the retort, so prior to retorting cans are
washed in hot detergent solution 1.5% sodium phosphate at 80°C. The
washed cans are rinsed to remove detergent residue
6. Retorting:
• Retorting is heating of foods prone to microbial spoilage in hermetically
sealed containers to extend their shelf life. The main goal of retort
processing is to obtain commercial sterilization by application of heat.
• The sealed cans are heated for a predetermined time- temperature
schedule in saturated steam.
• Important consideration in canned fish is the prevention of spores of
Clostridium botulinum. Canned fish is a low acid food and C. botulinum
is assumed to be in the pack. In order to kill C. botulinum spores, centre
of low acid pack must be maintained at temp of 121°C for minimum of
2.52 minutes.
7. Post-process handling:
There are several contributory factors leading to post-process leaker
spoilage; these include the following:
• poor quality cooling water,
• poor post-process hygiene and sanitation. and
• container damage during handling and storage.
• Cans should be rapidly cooled to 40 °C in retorts, otherwise they may
remain at thermophilic incubation temperatures. As product
temperatures fall during cooling, there is a corresponding fall in the
internal pressures in caps; and when the product temperature falls below
the fill temperature a vacuum forms. This means that the pressure
differential across the ends of cans undergoing the final stages of pressure
cooling, will favour the entry of cooling water into those cans in which
there are seal imperfections.
• It is prudent, therefore to accept the possibility of there being micro-
leakage through the double seams of some cans and that when this
occurs cooling water will mix with sterile product.
• On the few occasions that post-process leaker contaminant, it is
important that the cooling water be of sound microbiological quality,
for otherwise there is an unacceptably high probability of spoilage. It
is because of the risks of post-process leaker spoilage that fish
canners use sanitizing agents to control contamination levels in retort
cooling water. The most widely used are elemental chlorine and
chlorine based compounds, however, other sanitizing agents include
elemental iodine, iodine compounds and iodophors (a combination of
iodine and a solubilizing compound which aids the controlled release
of free iodine into the cooling water).
8. Storage:
To achieve satisfactory shelf-life the following conditions must be
observed:
• The contents of the cans must be commercially sterilized.
• The inside of the can must be resistant to and damaging effects from
the contents and the outside must be resistant to corrosion under
reasonable storage conditions.
• The can ends must be sealed to prevent ingress of water and/or air or
any form of contamination
Types of shellfish:
• They are more perishable than finfish. Lobsters or crabs spoil within a
day or less.
1. Shrimp:
-India is one of the leading country in shrimp processing and export.
-Shrimp should be processed within 5 days after the catch even though
they are iced.
- They contain high amounts of free AA than finfish and also have
highly active proteolytic enzymes – the cathepsins.
- They require quick freezing.
 2. Oysters and clams:
• These when sold in shell, must be alive. Shell oyster
may be held at the refrigerator temperature for
only a short time before use.
• Shucked oysters (removed from shells) are sold
fresh, frozen or canned, or pressed into blocks and
frozen.
3. Crabs or Lobsters:
• They must be alive when cooked. The meat from cooked crab is
squeezed out. And then crab meat is canned or pressed into blocks
and frozen.
• The lobster is dark bluish green in colour when taken out from water
but turns red during cooking.
Cooking of fish:
• Almost same as that of meat. But the muscle fibres of fish are not
tough and the amount of connective tissue is small, and hence can be
more easily cooked than the meat of warm-blooded animals.
• Fish should be carefully handled during cooking so that it does not
break easily.
• Fish is generally cooked by dry heat like broiling, baking or frying.
Fish products:
1. Fish meal-
• Prepared from parts of fish which is not fit for human consumption.
• The parts are grinded to remove the oil, then dehydrated.
• Fish meal contains 55-70 % protein, 2-5 % fat, 10-12 % minerals, 6-
12% moisture.
• Mostly used for animal and poultry feed.
2. Fish flour:
• The fat extracted tissue, after stripping off solvent, dehydration and
milling, gives a bland highly nutritious powder rich in high quality
protein (85-90%).
• This product under bacteriological control is fit for human
consumption and is known as Fish flour or fish protein concentrate.
3. Fish oils:
• 2 kinds of fish oils: Liver oils and fish body oil.
• Liver oil is the principal source of vitamin A. Liver oil is extracted from
fishes like cod, halibut, tuna and shark.
• Liver oil is obtained by cooking minced fish liver at 85-95°C. This
results in disintegration of liver cells and freeing of oil. The oil floating
on steam condensate can be skimmed off or separated by
centrifugation.
• Fish body oil is obtained from sardine, herring and salmon. Fishes are
ground to pulp and steamed. The oil and water gets separated from
the protein. The cooked flesh is pressed. The ‘presscake’ is worked up
for fish meal. The press liquor is concentrated and oil is recovered.