New salmon gutter offers quick payback, says Kroma.

Kroma said its new GUTMASTER 8000 has been developed for gutting chum salmon, but can also handle other similar types of fish.

The company said that the equipment measures all fish individually and adjusts knives and brushes based on this measurement.

Through a newly developed technique, the GUTMASTER 8000 is capable of gutting fish between 1.5-8 kg without adjustment of the machine and unnecessary production downtime, said Kroma.

“Studies at different processors in ​Alaska​ have shown that the machine can save up to ten operators per shift and with the better roe quality the pay-back time for the machine is very short, within one season,”​ claims the company.

Head cutting​Kroma said that it is possible to add a head cutting unit on the machine, which can be put into switch-off mode when not required, while a touch screen feature enables the operator to determine the portion of the fish to be gutted and cut.

“GUTMASTER 8000 makes it easy to remove the roe manually when the fish is cut, and outside the roe season the machine can be adjusted to automatically suck out the guts,”​ continued the manufacturer.

Kroma explained that the machine can be customised for each customer depending on their requirements and capacity needs.

Salmon sorting​

Meanwhile, according to a study by scientists in Norway, computer vision systems could automate salmon fillet sorting lines, reducing labour costs and increasing processing speed.

Scientists at the Foundation for Scientific and Industrial Research (Sintef) found during tests that a computer vision system and a panel of inspectors evaluated the samples almost identically.

The colour of salmon is one of the most important quality parameters in processing because consumers associate redder fish with quality, taste and freshness.

Generally, the grading of salmon fillets is performed manually by trained inspectors using the internationally recognised standard of Roche colour cards. While vision systems are commonly used for sorting and quality control in many food industries, the uptake has been slower in fish processing.

However, previous studies estimate that replacing labour with vision systems, operating at a hypothetical rate one fillet per second, would reduce costs by €0.75 ($1) per kilo of fish product, based on current Norwegian processing practices.

Method​

Tests used adult fish from two processing plants in Norway. The fish were filleted and chilled before being examined by the computer vision system using a Minolta chromameter, and a panel of three inspectors using Roche cards in daylight.

The test results showed almost no difference between the assessment of salmon quality, based on colour, by the computer vision system and that of the sensory evaluation using the Roche cards.

This demonstrates that a method based on computer vision to classify fillets can work, claims Sintef.