Baader of Lubeck, Germany, demonstrated two innovative farmed salmon and whitefish processing machines at Seafood Processing Europe today.
Andy Miller, the company's managing director, showed off the Baader 988, an automatic trimmer that's part of the company's Salmon Processing line. The machine trims the back and belly strip off of the fillets and removes the membrane on the fillet's surface.
The fillet doesn't need to be removed from the belt to be inspected, improving the quality of the product. The machine reduces labor on the processing line, enabling processors in countries with high labor costs to better compete with processors in countries with low labor costs.
"We don't want people at the end of the line cleaning up the fillets," said Miller.
The machine also detects melanin and blood spots.
The 988 was originally launched four years ago, and 36 of the machines are in operation in Europe, Canada and Chile.
Miller also demonstrated the new Baader 59, an automatic skinner designed to gently handle the soft meat of cod, haddock, saithe and other whitefish.
The fish is fed tail first into the machine, which removes the skin, keeping the surface of the fillet smooth and the tail intact and producing the highest yield possible.
The machine has two belts, handles up to 40 fillets per minute and leaves fillets stretched out and separated from each other, speeding up processing and inspection.
Both machines are designed to improve food safety by reducing the number of times the fillets are handled by hand on the processing line.
Founded 88 years ago, Baader is one of the world's largest manufacturers of seafood-processing equipment. The company also produces processing machinery for the poultry, red meat and fruit industries.
