Contact
Sigurjón Arason
Chief Engineer
sigurjon.arason@matis.is
Sókn á ný mið / Thawing processes
This project is a joint project of Brims hf, Matís ohf and 3X Technology ehf and aims to develop new equipment and processes for thawing gutted catfish for processing. The project was for two years and was funded by the Technology Development Fund. The project contains several experimental reports that were made by the participants of the project and were carried out in Brims' premises in Akureyri. The experiments were largely based on examining the heat distribution of cod at different thawing temperatures on the lake. Thermal inserts were placed in the core and redness of the cod to monitor the temperature in the fillet. The aim was to try to find out the best thawing method in terms of the quality of the raw material after thawing and storage in the refrigerator overnight. The main variables in these experiments were time and temperature. The thawing was tested in a so-called auger made by 3X Technology in Ísafjörður. By using snails in thawing, it will be very easy to control the thawing time and also ensure that the raw material that enters first comes out first. The main results of the project were that the best result from the thawing in terms of color and loss of the fillet in the processing was to thaw the cod in the shortest possible time and have the temperature of the water (thawing temperature) even throughout the thawing process. Then after storage in the refrigerator overnight, the temperature of the fish is about zero to -1 ° C. This will give the best result in terms of the quality of the raw material.
This project is a collaboration work between Brim hf, Matis ohf and 3X Technology ehf. The project objectives is to develop a new equipment and processing for thawing fish. This project is for two years and is supported by Icelandic Center for Research (Rannis). This project contains several experiment reports and their payoff which was executed by the members of this project. All these experiments were done within Brims accommodation. Their main object was to investigate the temperature gradient of codfish with various thawing temperature. Thawing experiments were executed in so called screw tank, manufactured by the company 3X Technology. By using these tanks you will ensure that the fish whos goes first in the tank will go first out when thawing is over. And thereby all control of time and temperature will be much easier. The primary conclusion from this project is that the best outcome from the thawing experiment, when taking into account the color and looseness of the fish fillet, is to have the thawing time as short as possible and the temperature of the water as even as possible throughout the thawing process.