Innovative equipment on display at Japan Seafood & Technology Expo

The Japan International Seafood & Technology Expo, held 17 to 19 August at Tokyo Big Sight, featured 1,300 booths and drew about 35,000 visitors. As per the title, technology – meaning seafood processing and refrigeration equipment – was a major part of this show. Here we list some of the more interesting items of equipment promoted.

Idoreiki Refrigeration Co., Ltd. of Kitami, Hokkaido has developed electronic monitoring for its refrigeration system and the local environmental conditions, and a control system that determines in real time the ideal pressures and temperatures required for maximum efficient freezing. The company claims that its “Eta-max refrigeration system (emRS)” cuts energy use by up to half and improves freezing capacity by up to 30 percent – important not only for cost savings, but also for achieving a better carbon footprint, something many companies now include as part of their annual Corporate Social Responsibility reports.

Ohmichi Co., Ltd. of Maebashi in Gunma Prefecture produces a “Swing Fryer”, which is a stainless steel rotary deep fryer, suitable for potato croquets, or for breaded shrimp or octopus tentacles – an ever-popular dish in Japan. Some advantages of the fryer are automatic discharge of floating fried scum or crumbs, and quick temperature adjustment. It also has the ability to individually adjust the frying time of different items, to allow cooking items of different thickness at the same time.
Unifiller is a Canadian company based in Delta, British Columbia, specializing in quick, portioned filling of food containers. Their local representative, Unifiller Japan, is based in Higashi-Osaka. The company’s depositors and transfer pumps can quickly and accurately deposit, portion and pump seafood sauces, pate and even delicate fish roe – which is prone to breaking during filling.

While Tokyo-based Unicharm is best known for baby diapers, adult incontinence diapers and sanitary napkins, the company has also patented a design for liquid absorbent sheets for lining tray packs, especially useful for controlling drip in seafood. The main advantage of the company’s product over conventional drip sheets is that the top perforated resin layer is heat laminated rather than glued to the lower absorbent layer. This eliminates the problems of gaps caused by too little adhesive, and of excess adhesive permeating the absorbent layer and reducing its absorbency, caused by too much adhesive.

Cooldry Machinery Corp. based in Takamatsu, Kagawa Prefecture, offers drying cases for dehydrating such marine products as sardines and kelp, mainstays of Japanese cooking. Dried sardines are the first item used in making miso soup, while konbu (kelp) is the first item in a nabe (hotpot) dish. Cool drying takes less energy than hot-air drying or freeze drying, but without the dependence on the weather of sun-drying.

Nakamura Sangyo Co., Ltd. of Mastudo, Chiba Prefecture offers vacuum packaging tray-sealer machinery. The advantage – for its Japanese customers – is that it is a Japanese-made product and the company has its Japanese-made parts on hand. Competitors in the vacuum packing field are mostly foreign companies, notably U.S.-based Multivac.

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