Processing technology of swordfish

Swordfish (xiphiasgladiuslinnaeus, Commonswordfish) is a large deep-sea fish, named for its upper and lower jaw shape, thick in the middle and thin on both sides, like a sharp sword. But because of its high speed, it is called swordfish like an arrow away from the string. Distributed in the Indian Ocean, Atlantic Ocean and Pacific Ocean, the American coast of the western Atlantic is the main producing area of swordfish, which is mainly caught by longline fishing, and most of the individuals are about 10~100kg, while those above 100kg are few. The maximum body length of swordfish is 5m and its weight is 400kg.

Swordfish meat is pink to red, meat color is good-looking, delicious, very popular in the American market, the price is very high. The processing technology of swordfish has not been reported in China. The author engaged in this work in Singapore Sanhai Fisheries Co., Ltd. in 2003. The processing technology of swordfish is summarized as follows:

1 purchase of raw materials for swordfish

Swordfish raw materials are purchased from sea frozen processing vessels. Fish are required to have bright skin, bright flesh color, no head, no tail and no internal organs. When purchasing raw materials in storage, they should be stored according to 10kg 25kg, 25kg, 45kg, 45kg, 70kg and above. The freezer temperature should be below-15 ℃.

2 processing technology

2.1 the cleaning of raw fish will put the raw fish out of the warehouse lightly on the fish washing platform and set it up. Then use the water gun to clean, this work is carried out jointly by two people, one person takes the water gun to wash, one person uses the wooden iron hook to flip the fish body, wash the fish quickly.

2.2 the sawed fish will transport the washed fish to the large saw platform through a roller, and the sawing technician will cut the fish in half evenly along the middle of the vertebra through the back and abdomen, do not saw off, then saw off the belly part and put it into the fish rack.

2.3 Bone planing put the sawed fish on the skeleton, cut off half of the vertebrae and put it on the fish rack.

2.4 Bony scraping the mesentery, place the planed fish on the processing table, arrange them in the order of head-to-tail contact, wash off the sawdust on the surface of the fish body with a torrent, then bone off by a skilled worker, the knife is a semicircular machete, and the mesentery is scraped off by the fish repairman after bone removal. After local repair, manually move (lift) onto the iron frame.

2.5 put the fish rack into a four-layer iron frame with a lid, each layer is welded with galvanized iron sheet, after the polyethylene non-toxic plastic is invaded into the water, spread on the iron sheet, and put the repaired fish on the iron rack, with the skin facing up, the meat facing down, and the head to tail.

Pack in stainless steel trough, add large pieces of ice, crush with iron hook, add tap water to make ice-water mixture, ice-water ratio is 1:2, put frozen fish into ice trough to pack ice, fish out, grade by quality inspector into their respective braided bags, piercing, weighing, according to different grades, (usually divided into one, two), different weights (usually 20 pounds, 30 pounds 40 pounds) 40 pounds, 50 pounds. 50m 60lb, 60lb 60lb, 90lb or above) are put into iron buckets respectively. After the drums are filled, the driver quickly loads them into the freezer.

2.7 slices cut the processed fish along the blood line, remove the substandard places at the head and tail, slice with a slicer (usually 1 inch in thickness), slice, feed the conveyor into the ice wrapping machine, and enter the automatic weighing machine. Sorting according to different heavyweights (3 to 5 ounces, 5 to 7 ounces, 7 to 9 ounces, 9 to 11 ounces), and then manually put into the vacuum packaging machine, generally single packaging Sometimes the two pieces are wrapped together, depending on customer requirements. The packaged fish fillets are packed in cardboard boxes, sealed with tape, and then transported to the freezer for storage.

3Technical essentials

3.1 to keep the fish at a low temperature, in order to ensure the freshness of the fish, it is necessary to try not to heat up the fish in the process of processing. the lower the temperature of the fish, the less likely the fish is to deteriorate. Therefore, in the process of processing, it is necessary to minimize the residence time of fish in the processing workshop, flush less water, and lower the temperature of the workshop (the workshop temperature should be below 12 ℃).

3.2 increasing the meat production rate of processed fish depends on the proficiency of the workers. Workers should participate in training before taking up the post, and key posts such as sawing fish, bone planing, bone removal and fish repair should be equipped with trained skilled workers with many years of experience.

3.3 quality inspection fish inspection is the key to processing technology, quality inspection workers mainly through visual inspection to judge the pros and cons of fish, according to the fish meat color, skin integrity degree classification, this work should be undertaken by experienced full-time personnel.

3.4 Environmental hygiene of the processing workshop can not be ignored, workshop hygiene should be done by cleaning companies, all kinds of articles and tools should be disinfected regularly, iron and steel utensils should be kept dry to prevent rust. Work clothes and hats should be cleaned frequently, workers should wear rubber boots before entering the workshop, rubber gloves should be sterilized and masks should be worn.