Unit Operations in

Fish Canning
Major operations

 Raw material handling

 Precooking
 Filling
 Exhausting
 Seaming
 Retorting
 Post-process handling
 Raw material handling
 Eliminate fish with high
bacterial load
 Do not expose fish to high
temperature
 Choose fish from same lot
 Temporary storage of fish
 Sprinkle salt (not for
sardines)
 RSW or CSW (4-6h)
 Ice (8-10h)
 Freeze in bulk/cold storage
RSW
Grading
Based on
 Quality
 Size – Sardines and shrimps
 Species
 Colour – Salmon (pink), tuna (white)
 Automatic grading machine - thickness
Fish Grading Machine
Pre-treatment
 Dressing includes
Scaling, heading, evisceration, filleting, skinning,
butchering, bleeding
 Dressing yield
 Finfish 70-75%, Shrimps 40-50%, Oysters 10%
 Beheading
 Straight
cut (reduced yield), ‘V’ cut (more yield)
 Machines available
 Filleting
 Removal of compete musculature from each side
 Machine or manual
 Skinning
 Machine

 Descaling
 Machine or manual
 Washing
 Soaking

 Agitation

 Drum wash
 Spray wash (Economical)
 Size cutting
Blanching
 Soaking in conditioning or flavouring agents
 Removes blood and slime
 Improves texture and taste
 Give shiny appearance
 Condition fish for processing
 Cold blanching
Soaking in sat. NaCl (15-25%) to improve
texture and flavour. eg. sardines
 Hot blanching
Heating in low strength NaCl. It inactivates
enzymes and prevent discoloration
eg. prawns and vegetables
Blanching…
 Acidification with citric acid
 Prevent natural compound formation
 Prevent discoloration and off flavour
Precooking
 Steam, water, oil, hot air or smoke
 Partially dehydrates flesh – shrinkage (easy filling)
 Removes natural oils having strong odours
 Reduce oil-water emulsion
 Clean raw material and reduce bacterial load
 Coagulates fish protein and loosen meat from
frame
 Expel respiratory gases from tissues
 Give desirable texture and flavour
 Inactivates enzymes that cause discoloration
Precooking…
 Precooking loss - water release from protein
Fish (15-30%); Tuna (17-18%)
Sardines (19-34%)
 Moisture 60% - ideal for canning
 Lobster and Crab
 To coagulate protein
 To break tissue

 Oysters and Clams

 To kill the animal
 To help to open the shell
Precooking…
 Flesh loss 10% - due to leaching of soluble proteins
and nutrients
 Prevention
 CMC and tripolyphosphate (1%) reduce 20-40%
 Steam cooking

 If under blanching?
 Water dissolves protein
 Cloudiness of brine due to oil-water emulsion
 If over cooking?
 Affect colour, flavour, texture
Precooking…
 Two types
1. Before – Steam cook and pack (Tuna)
2. After – Pack and precook (Sardines)
 Precooking after packing is good. Why?
 Minimize handling
 While draining avoid spilling

 Precooking before packing

 Arrange fish in griller and cook
 Cool and air dry (vacuum drying preferable)
 Aids oil absorption
Precooking…
 Shrimps
Hot blanched/ precooked after packing
 Sardines and mackerel
Cold blanched/ precooked in steam
 Tuna
Precooked in steam under pressure and salt
added while filling
 Sardines/ shellfish
Cold blanched/ Smoke before canning
 Filling
 Before filling
Clean can to remove dust, dirt, salt ZnCl2
used as flux
 Filling
 Fill correct weight
 Leave uniform headspace (4-6 mm)
 Maintain correct solids to liquid ratio
Types of Filling
 Hand filling
 Labour consuming (In sardine cannery, 53% filling; 37% dressing;
2% precooking; 7% finishing)
 Give neat product
 Suitable for high value fish
 Machine filling
 Deliver certain volume rather than weight
 Suitable for sardines, tuna and salmon
Machine Filling of Cans
 Effects of Filling
 Under filling (PANELLING)
 Container will force inward due to low
pressure ie. high vacuum
 Create problem in labeling
 Excess air accelerate container corrosion

 Over filling (BUCKLING)
 Container bulge due to low vacuum
 Difficult to add additives
 Cause deformities
 Create microbial spoilage appearance
 Additives
 Brine
 Common additive
 3% salt solution or salt pellets
 Uniform penetration takes 3 days
 Enhance flavour
 Reduce curd formation (salmon/mackerel)
 Oil
 Principle additive
 Vegetable oil – olive, cottonseed, sunflower
 Penetration takes 18-20 days
 Mechanical oil dispensor
 Suitable for sardines, herring, tuna
Additives

 Tomato sauce
 Suitable for oil sardine and mackerel
 28-30% of solid content
 Should not loose color
 Others
 Carboxy methyl cellulose (CMC)
 Mono sodium glutamate (1.6g/kg) with
sugar and salt
 Sugar vegetable
 Spices
Exhausting

 Create partial vacuum before sealing

 Remove air from content and head space
 Avoid excessive strain on the seam
 Removes oxygen - prevent internal corrosion
and rancidity
 Provide concave appearance due to vacuum
Methods of Exhausting

 Three methods – Heat, Mechanical, Steam

 Heat exhausting
 Heat the can contents before sealing
 Air expels, contents expand and water vapour replace air in
headspace, seal and cool
 Amount of vacuum depends on sealing temperature
EXHAUST BOX
 Cold fill the can, pass through steam
exhaust with clinched ends before sealing
 Clinching – Can ends partially secured to
the can body by single seam on opposite
side, keeping the end sufficient to allow
escape of air
 Heat exhausting good for vacuum
pouches
 Mechanical exhausting
 Fill cold material
 Seal using vacuum sealing
 Suitable for cans
 Not suitable for flexible pouches
because partial vacuum collapse the pouch and
prevent further escape of air
 Two stage sealing for flexible pouches
 First seal small area, draw vacuum and seal finally
 Steam exhausting
 Blast of air injected into headspace through ports around
seaming head of double seamer
 Steam blows air away and create vacuum
 Effective for products packed in liquids
 Reliable exhausting temp 60-70oC
Sealing
CANS
 To restrict microorganism entry
 Done by double seamer
 Delay leads to loss of vacuum
POUCHES
 Fuse two thermoplastic materials
by heat
 Using heated pressure plates or
jaws (Hot bar sealing or Impulse
sealing)
Double seaming

 Hermetic seal between can body and can end

 Done by two seaming rolls and chuck
 Cover hook - First edges folded, outer ridge curl
around lid
 Body hook - Cover hook compress and flatten
to 5 thickness metal towards body wall
Can washing
 Wash the spilled oil, brine or sauce from can
 Use mild soap or detergent
(trisodium polyphosphate 1% at 80oC)
 Washing schedule
Prewash – Spray FW at pressure
Wash – Spray mild detergent
Rinse – Spray with FW
 If no can washing
 Contaminants clog the retort
 Problem in labeling
 Rusting or corrosion due to loss of lacquer
Thermal processing
 Heat sealed can for a predetermined period at a
predetermined temperature in
Saturated steam
Mixture of steam and air
 Heating medium depends on type of package
 Glass/pouch – Superheated water with air over
pressure
 Metal container – Saturated steam
Aim of thermal processing

 Cook the food

 Destroy chemical enzyme
 Destroy microorganisms causing spoilage
 Achieve commercial sterility
 Elimination of spores of Clostridum
botulinum, capable of producing toxin at
anaerobic condition
 Statistical sterility
 Complete destruction of microorganisms – sterilization
 Commercial sterility
 Destruction of the growth of viable microorganism of public health
significance and reproduction of microorganism of no public
health significance
Thermal processing

 Time–temperature combinations influenced by

 Acidity of foods
 No. and type of microorganism and their heat
sensitivity
 Consistency of food
Classification of foods
Bigelow and Cameron (1932)
 Non-acid foods > pH 6.0
 Semi-acid foods pH 4.5 – 6.0
 Acid foods < pH 4.5

Esty and Cameron (1940)

 Low-acid foods > pH 5.0
 Medium acid foods pH 4.5 – 5.0
 Acid foods pH 3.7 – 4.5
 High acid foods < pH 3.7

Stumbo (1954)
 Low -acid foods > pH 4.5
 Acid foods pH 4.0 – 4.5
 High -acid foods < pH 4.0
Vertical Still Retort
Horizontal Still Retort
Cooling
 Kills thermophilic bacteria
 Prevents overcooking
 Prevents loss of flavour
 Use 5 ppm chlorinated water
Q = 100 x X
Y
X – Required ppm
Y – Available chlorine (%) in stock sodium
hypochlorite
Q – Quantity of sodium hypochlorite to be added to
1000 L of water
Types of cooling

 Air cooling
 Floor, simple, cheap
 Disadv: More floor space, overcooking,
discoloration
 Water cooling
1. Spray water at pressure
2. Pass through long water tank
3. Immerse in long tank with water flow
4. Keep in tank, rotate at 120 rpm speed
(FAST)
 Pressure cooling (BEST METHOD)
 Sudden release of pressure cause excess strain
 Toreduce pressure, introduce water along with
compressed air from top of the retort
 Safety valve release the pressure raise
 Slowly reduce to internal pressure of can
Drying

 Liberation of heat from cans dry

the surface
 Pass cans through blast air
Coding

 Label carry a code

 Avoid damage to lacquer
 Cause pin hole formation or corrosion
 Code contains
1. Nature of content
2. Name of Canner
3. Date of Production
Labeling

 Attractive
 Aids identification
 Provide composition, preservatives, brand,
manufacturers address, specific instruction
 Adhesive – not hygroscopic (not alkali or acid)
Casing

 Dry and suitable size

 Strong to withstand storage and
transport
 Code in case/sampling/stock
verification
Stacking of cans
Storage

 Cool and dry

 Not in extreme temperature
 Not in humid conditions
 Allow to mature
 Good sanitary condition
 Proper cooling prevent STACK BURN
 Retention of heat in the stack
 Spoilage or deterioration in quality
 Accelerated corrosion
 Texture/flavour/odour change