‘Breading technologies’ add value to Irish seafood

The Irish sea-fisheries board (BIM) has invested in new breading technologies in response to the ‘abundance of pelagic, whitefish and other fish and shellfish species on its doorstep’. This bounty is presenting a considerable opportunity to produce convenient, market-ready concepts for the seafood industry, at its Seafood Development Centre, according to the agency.

Industry trials are underway using a Deighton forming and breading line to test combinations of fish, binders, breading and coating systems. Market data is also being used to develop bespoke products for target consumer groups and multiples.

 “We have received numerous enquiries about forming and breading technologies for whitefish and shellfish spsecies,” remarked John Fagan, Senior Technologist, BIM.

“The addition of a Baader 600 meat separator means we can look at both whole fillets and recovered meat products. We have found that by using the meat separator, up to 4kg of unused and unavailable seafood flesh can be recovered from 10kg of discarded material, e.g. fish frames. This meat is of high quality and can be used as raw material to develop value-added reformed products. The challenge is to combine highly nutritional fish species that will deliver maximum flavour, texture and quality,” he said.

Blue whiting recovered meat presents considerable potential as a cost effective raw material that can be used as stand alone or in combination with more expensive fish species (e.g. cod) to develop high-end, high fish content products. A recent workshop at the SDC attracted 10 major players in the Irish seafood sector to discuss best practice in terms of market, equipment and ingredient technologies.

[See Inshore Ireland (July) for general profile of the SDC: Innovation centre that converts seafood ideas into profitable businesses. For details on a special discount of B2B ‘call to action’ banner links for seafood companies contact [email protected] / [email protected]]