Cabinplant has developed a new machine, a so-called roe separator, to solve a seasonal problem faced by producers of cold-water shrimps. Using this roe separator, it is no longer necessary to employ extra staff in the shrimp factory during the spring spawning period, where the quality control of the mechanically peeled cold-water shrimps usually takes up extra time.
The roe sticks so hard to the shrimp flesh and the shells that it will take approximately 50 per cent more hands to ensure that no roe or shells remain on the ready-to-eat shrimps. The roe separator is placed between the cleaner and the blow cleaning unit on the shrimp line. The cleaner strikes and loosens any remaining shell still stuck to the shrimp flesh, and then the blow cleaning unit blows the loose shells clear off the shrimp flesh.
In the roe separator, the shrimps flow through a vessel containing a special saline solution, whereby the shells with the roe attached sink to the bottom, thus not causing problems during the subsequent blow-cleaning of the shrimp flesh.
The roe separator not only helps the shrimp producer save manpower during the spring spawning period. It also has the effect that it will not be necessary to reduce the production speed during the spawning period because the separator works at the same pace as the other processes. The roe separator was introduced at a shrimp plant in Greenland last spring. Since then, it has been optimised to include monitoring and automatic addition of brine, meaning that control of the salt content in the roe separator is now fully automated. The very salt percentage is decisive for whether the shrimp shells with roe sink to the bottom, whilst the shrimps continue their flow through the process.
