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PRODUCTION FLOW CHART (SURIMI)

Raw Material Receiving

Washing

Sorting

Weighment

Dressing

Washing

Transfer to Processing Plant

Conveying to Hopper

Descaling

Meat Separation

First Leaching

Rotary Screening (1)

Second Leaching

Rotary Screening (2)

Refining

Dehydration

Weighment

Kneading with Additives

Forming and Weighment

Freezing

Metal Detection

Packing and Labelling

Cold Storage

Shipment
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DESCRIPTION OF FLOW CHART

1. RAW MATERIAL RECEIVING

Raw material is first received at jetty from various suppliers. From the jetty, it is
transported to the Fish Receiving Area in blue drums. Once the raw material has
arrived at factory, it is then unloaded from truck to be arranged by supplier to
segregate into different types and species.
2. WASHING
The fish is passed through fish washer to remove dirt and other undesired foreign
matter.
3. SORTING
After washing, the raw material is sorted to segregate the sizes and species. As final
product is largely dependent on raw material freshness, organoleptic test is carried
out to judge the freshness. Factors affecting fish freshness are firmness of meat, gill
color and odor. Inferior fish quality is rejected at the sorting stage.
4. WEIGHMENT
Sorted material is weighed and recorded in the raw material tally sheet.
5. DRESSING
Fishes are dressed on well sanitized chopping boards. Knife is used to remove fish
head and viscera.

Besides being rich in protein decomposition enzymes (proteases), the fish head and
viscera also contain large number of bacteria that hinder the formation of meat
elasticity. Such enzymes (present in stomach, intestine, pyloric caeca, kidney and
liver) can deteriorate muscle proteins. Since the enzymes remain active during frozen
storage, a thorough removal of such enzymes is essential.

During dressing stage, fishes are observed for condition of roe (egg) to judge
spawning period. In general, fish meat quality changes according to physical
condition in life cycle of spawning, feeding and incubation. Fishes with matured eggs
are not likely to possess good gel strength. Physical contaminant like black dots plays
a significant role in the ultimate surimi grading. It is therefore necessary to remove
tail-fins to keep under low contaminant level in order to produce good quality surimi.
After dressing, cut fish are weighed to determine headless yield.
6. WASHING
After dressing, the dressed fish is washed with 50 p.p.m chlorine water to reduce
bacterial load, undesired blood and other intestinal objects. Depending on availability
and quantity of raw material, the fish are either sent to chilled room for storage, or
to production line for further processing. Storage of fish is discouraged unless it is
really required, i.e., only when large quantity of raw material or very small quantity
is available which cannot be processed immediately. This is due to deterioration in
fish quality during prolonged storage, resulting in inferiority of gel strength produced.
7. TRANSFER TO PROCESSING PLANT
Dressed fish is iced and transferred to processing plant either in plastic baskets (for
immediate processing) or in insulated boxes for the following day processing.
8. CONVEYING TO HOPPER
Dressed fish is transferred to the conveyor hopper according to the production plan.
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9. DESCALING
From the hopper, the fish is conveyed to a de-scaler machine, where it is washed and
de-scaled and taken to the meat separator by way of a net conveyor.
10. MEAT SEPARATION
Meat separator is a machine where fish is pressed in between a rotating perforated
steel drum and a rubber belt running in the same direction; whilst fish are being
squeezed between the drum and the belt, meat falls into the drum through
perforations.

Bones and skins get scrapped out from surface of the drum with specially designed
knife and get disposed off. Meat falling from the drum is transported to leaching
tanks by a stainless steel channel with chilled water (<10 0C).
11. FIRST LEACHING
The first stage of leaching or washing in water is to remove water-soluble proteins
and fat, thereby concentrating salt-soluble myofibrillar proteins. It is the myofibrillar
proteins that provide gel strength in surimi product when being heated in the
presence of salt. The leaching stage is undergone twice; both being of continuous
type.

Leaching also removes:

 Casual components of protein denaturation during frozen storage, such as
enzymes and inorganic salts trimethylamine oxide.
 Fat, blood and muscle pigments in the fish meat, thereby improving meat
color.
 Decomposed substances in fish meat, thereby removing undesired fishy odor.
Magnetic filter is installed at the leaching tank to prevent metal contamination in
meat.
Fish meat and chilled water are put in leaching tank and agitated in the tanks before
passing through the rotary screen.
12. ROTARY SCREENING (1)
The meat is pump to rotary screen I to remove excess water from it. A rotary screen
removes excess water from the meat before undergoing second stage of leaching.
13. SECOND LEACHING
The objective of second leaching is similar to that of the first stage; as described in
(K). Magnetic filter is installed at the leaching tank to prevent metal contamination in
meat.
14. ROTARY SCREENING (2)
The meat is pump to rotary screen (II) to remove excess water from it. It removes
excess water from the meat before passing to refiner.
15. REFINING
After the leaching process, the color of the meat improves but still contain impurities
like bones, skin particles and gut contents that need to be removed. The dewatered
meat from the rotary screen 2 falls into the refiner and due to the pressure from the
rotary blades, good meat is forced to pass through the perforation of refiner screen,
while remaining impurities are rejected towards the end of the refiner. At refiner,
contaminants score and color of the meat is controlled by adjusting refiner speed and
visual check. The pure meat which comes out from the refiner screen will then fall
into the screw press. The impurities which are rejected from the refiner (called
refiner waste) are collected and disposed off.
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16. DEHYDRATION
Since the gel strength of surimi is inversely related to the moisture and is declared at
certain moisture level, the moisture control is a very critical stage in surimi
processing. Moisture control is achieved by screw press which compresses the meat
and removes water continuously by means of special rotating screws inside a
perforated screen. The rejected water from the screw press would still have some
meat particles and hence it is again re-circulated to the refiner through recovery
screen. The moisture-adjusted meat which comes out from the screw press is
weighed and transported to the high kneader for mixing with additives.
17. WEIGHMENT
Dehydrated fish meat and additives are weighed and recorded according to
specification.
18. KNEADING WITH ADDITIVES
To increase the shelf life of product during frozen storage, additives are added in
meat which changes according to the variety of fishes. The additives added are the
combination of sugar and polyphosphate at particular percentage based on customer
preferences. Generally, 6% sugar and 0.15% STPP are added. The meat temperature
in the high kneader is kept low by chilled water circulation/ice filled in the jacket of
high kneader.

The meat temperature should be below 200C at the outlet of the forming machine.
Meat and cryoprotectants are mixed at fixed duration (6 min.) and then this meat
(surimi) is dropped into the filling machine. Only QA approved additives are used in
Surimi production.
19. FORMING AND WEIGHMENT
After mixing fish meat and cryoprotectants in the high kneader, the meat falls into
the hopper of forming machine. 10.010 kg of surimi slab is cut and packed in
polypropylene bags, which are heat sealed. All the slabs are differentiated and
marked with species and date. For different fish species in surimi production,
different color bags are to be used.

On every lot of 1,500 kg surimi, a representative sample of 4 kg is drawn for grade

determination for that particular lot. Another 1 kg sample is also drawn as a
reference sample, which is to be kept in cold store after freezing for re-checking, in
event of unfortunate case of quality complaint from customer.

These slabs are kept in tray and filled in trolley. Finally, they are loaded into plate
freezer for freezing.
20. FREEZING
The Surimi slabs are kept in contact plate freezer which brings down core
temperature to –180C within duration of 1.5 hours. Before unloading, the slabs are
physically checked for good freezing condition and then transferred to the packing
room.
21. METAL DETECTION
Frozen blocks are passed through a metal detector to check for metal contamination.
Metal detector is calibrated for Fe 1.5 mm and Non-Fe (SUS) 2.0 mm before
undergoing metal checking operation.