SeafoodSource interviews Jean-Paul Bernard, managing director of French microwave and radio frequency manufacturing company Sairem. The company has designed a thawing machine made up of continuous tunnels that allow processors to thaw frozen blocks and individual quick-frozen fish fillets such as cod and pangasius and headed-and-gutted fish such as herring, salmon, mackerel, squid and prawns. Capacity options are from 600 kilograms to 3,000 kilograms per hour, depending on the product and on the required final temperature.
What are your goals for launching this product at the European Seafood Exposition?
As we manufacture microwave and radio frequency machines, it is important to show any new development or improvement. For many years, the European Seafood Exposition in Brussels has been our reference in the field of fish and seafood products.
How does this product change the seafood industry?
Our microwave and radio frequency machines make it possible to thaw frozen blocks in a few minutes while classic systems take at least hours or even days. Industrial companies are very interested in our technologies because the product quality is not modified, there is no bacteriological development, the machines require a minimum floor space and there is no product loss. Furthermore, the production flexibility is very high.
Who are you marketing the product to?
Mainly to food processors who need to fillet fish, to shape products quickly for manufacturing breaded products, or to separate quickly the pieces inside a frozen block (with shrimp, for example).
What have sales been like for the product?
In the fish processing industry our sales are steadily increasing, and we sell as well to Europe as to Asia, Oceania and South and North America. Additionally, it’s important to know that our business is a niche. We are among the world leaders and our turnover is around EUR 6 million per year.
Do you hope to launch other new products at the show or in the future?
This year, we intended to launch a new process that would have interested many industrial companies. Unfortunately, we are not completely ready, but we plan to have it developed by the European Seafood Exposition in 2011.
