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Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - ULTRAFISH (ECO-INNOVATIVE PROCESSING TECHNOLOGY FOR BETTER QUALITY AND SHELF LIFE OF FISH PRODUCTS)

Teaser

Summary

Fish stock management in European waters is gaining importance, as it is necessary to ensure sustainability of marine resources.
The aim is improving the current processes (handling and processing) by applying a green and innovative technique based on ultrasounds at water-based stages, avoiding the use of chemical additives.
With ULTRAFISH, Scanfisk will reduce their costs and time processes, saving resources; producing fishery products with longer commercial shelf life.

Work performed

The technical viability study has demonstrated that ultrasounds will reduce the processing times (from 3 to 1 day), increasing production by a 38%. Ultrasound parameters were optimised in a lab scale to achieve the best results, proving our technology readiness level (TRL). Moreover, we have identified the steps required to implement the technology at industrial scale (work packages) and identified the key third parties that need to be involved in the process.
During the development of the technical part:
1. Optimum parameters have been confirmed in terms of frequency, power and time on maceration process obtaining similar results to the current process.
2. None of the tests performed on halibut fillets (application of ultrasound, pH control, additive control) during the maceration process allows getting better results than the current company conditions. Neither Scanfisk obtain positive results at the industrial level with its usual process as those obtained during the investigation, so it is suggested to repeat this stage.
3. The reduction of 90% of the microbiota in the hake fillets during the washing stage has been confirmed under the treatment conditions established in the study (frequency, power and time).
4. It has been confirmed that in the washing stage the use of UV-C light sanitizes the water after the ultrasonic treatment process (reducing microbial load). The parameters (frequency, power and time) have been successfully established to achieve the required microbial load reduction.
5. Ultrasound application for reducing the thawing time of the fillets has been confirmed (comparing with the current process of the company), without affecting the sensorial quality.
The commercial viability plan has helped us to better define our target markets (Spain, Italy, France, United Kingdom, Germany, The Netherlands and Belgium), our main competitors and the key stakeholders that will be involved during the commercialisation plan (distributor channels and retailers). Results from the internal survey with current customers have also given us strategic insights about how to correctly promote our products based on their needs.
As part of the commercial plan, we contacted some of the main customers through a questionnaire to know their interest on Ultrafish creating a business relationship once the project is finished. We have already visited some of potential clients, Royal Greenland, Igloo Seafood, Frio Antartic and MOWI.
Several international fairs have been attended (Frozen Seafood Products Exhibition CONXEMAR, Spain and SEAFOOD EXPO, Brussels) and scientific conferences (The National Congress C Y TA-CESIA, Spain and Gastronomy and Health Fair, Spain).
Ultrafish has been in different media and magazines (Alimarket, Retail Actual, AECOC, Inforetail, and El Heraldo de AragÃ³n) and social networks like Facebook and Instagram, as well as the website: www.ultrafish.eu.
Different merchandising has been developed (t-shirts, balloons, pens, aprons, yo-yo) to enhance the brand in the different events held: fairs, congresses, talks.
As part of the risk assessment analysis, we identified the potential risks at all levels that may arise during the implementation of ULTRAFISH. Several unexpected risks were detected in the technical part, as the volume of acquired equipment and the prototypes improvement, which has been solved. The patent search results shown that we have the freedom to operate, hence we will defined a specific IPR strategy for our innovation to protect the results in period 3.
ULTRAFISH is aligned with the overall strategy of Scanfisk and our needs, which are increasing our profit margin by optimising our processes and improving the products quality and quantity. The innovation has the potential to boost the Scanfisk growth, increasing our sales up to 28% maintaining our current cost structure.

Final results

Ultrasound emerged as a â€˜green and innovativeâ€™ technology in the Food sector. It is well-known that ultrasounds have significant effect on preservation, reducing the microbiological activity (99.9%), the processing times (80%) and costs (20%), eliminating post-treatment of water waste and consuming less energy (30%), but still not fully applied within the fish processing industry. Thus, ULTRAFISH will materialize this opportunity. Moreover, differently from other novel processing techniques as microwaves or gamma radiation, sound waves are considered safe, non-toxic and eco-friendly. Ultrasounds can achieve similar antimicrobial effects at low temperatures, which is perfect for fish products as they need to maintain freezing temperatures. The application of ultrasound to fish products can be an advantage since its preservative effects allow more optimal use of fish products throughout the whole supply chain, increasing their quality and commercial shelf life up to 12 days.
The main goals for ULTRAFISH are:
- Apply an environment-friendly technology: safe and non-toxic equipment, fully automated and reliable.
- Increase production capacity by 35%: processing times will be reduced by 3-4 days allowing 12 extra cycles.
- Water will be reused at least 4 times, which in turn will save 6.5 million liters per year of water waste.
- Longer marketability time: shelf life will be increased from 7 days to 10-12 days, enabling better access to new markets at far distances (Asia, USA).
- Lower processing costs: energy and water consumption will be reduced between 30-50%, which in turn will reduce the overall production cost of fish products by 20%.
- Finished product will have a clean label thanks to the reduction/elimination of additives. This will contribute to access markets with stricter regulations, like UK.
- Expand the product range treated with ULTRAFISH to produce other types of fish species like panga, monkfish, seabass, golden fish, sepia and squid.
- ULTRAFISH will contribute to a sustainable production and consumption over the whole fish life cycle by reducing the food waste.
- ULTRAFISH will create high benefits for fish processing companies willing to be early adopters, as by implementing the US technology companies can increase their production capacity by 35% with savings of approx. 30-50%.