Periodic Reporting for period 3 - ULTRAFISH (ECO-INNOVATIVE PROCESSING TECHNOLOGY FOR BETTER QUALITY AND SHELF LIFE OF FISH PRODUCTS)
Reporting period: 2019-06-01 to 2020-05-31
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.
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.
During the development of the technical part:
It has been validated a thawing time of 300 minutes for cuttlefish, with a temperature below 5ºC in the product.
The importance of controlling water temperature, a heat increase on temperature could you avoid product rejection.
It has been validated a rehydration time of 4 cycles of 120 minutes for 3 days (in total a US treatment of 240 minutes) for cuttlefish with a temperature below 5ºC in the product.
Rehydration values using additives are 20 ± 1%, obtaining a product with better organoleptic characteristics than the current cuttlefish. An option without additives would be interesting to study.
Up to 12 days of product shelf life in cuttlefish. Bringing the product an extra of 5 days.
Using UV lamps on the surface of the fish to improve germicide effects from UV light.
Creation of a trained sensory panel to taste and evaluate or stablish shelf life of fish goods produced in Scanfisk Seafood, will be interesting for the future of the company.
Organoleptic characteristics of Ultrafish products were better considered than current products made in Scanfisk.
The industrialization of Ultrafish could be in the same facilities as we are working nowadays, or in a new building. Money expenses must be considered to choose the best option.
Saving water, electricity and time is possible with the implementation of Ultrafish in an industrial scale.
A second part of marketing plan has been developed in the second period of Ultrafish® (January 2019-May 2020).
About IP management, it is considered that the figure of the Utility Model, focused on the protection of it from a complex installation, with the description in the memory of the processes that take place in it (thawed + hydration) would be the best option to protect Ultrafish.
Companies from the fish industry and companies from the engineering industry have been considered potential customers.
In the second period Scanfisk has been communicating information and all the news about Ultrafish to these potential customers via social media, trade fairs and other communication events.
Scanfisk has combined an online communication strategy with an offline one, with the aim of reaching a greater number of potential customers.
As part of the commercial plan, MOWI is the first client interested in Ultrafish’s products. Taking advantage of the current business relationship MOWI will buy the new products once Ultrafish will be industrialized. Taking advantage the product will be the same reference that Mowi is buying now but with improvements (shelf life or quality for example) Scanfisk will change directly the product selled to MOWI if the industrialization will be done.
Several international fairs have been attended (Frozen Seafood Products Exhibition CONXEMAR,) and conferences (Madrid Fusion Spain and AECOC Seafood Products).
Ultrafish has been in different media and magazines (Mercasa, Retail Actual, AECOC, Inforetail) and social networks like Facebook and Instagram, as well as the website: www.ultrafish.eu.
Different merchandising has been developed (usb, pens, notebooks and shopping bags) 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. 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.
It has been validated a thawing time of 300 minutes for cuttlefish, with a temperature below 5ºC in the product.
The importance of controlling water temperature, a heat increase on temperature could you avoid product rejection.
It has been validated a rehydration time of 4 cycles of 120 minutes for 3 days (in total a US treatment of 240 minutes) for cuttlefish with a temperature below 5ºC in the product.
Rehydration values using additives are 20 ± 1%, obtaining a product with better organoleptic characteristics than the current cuttlefish. An option without additives would be interesting to study.
Up to 12 days of product shelf life in cuttlefish. Bringing the product an extra of 5 days.
Using UV lamps on the surface of the fish to improve germicide effects from UV light.
Creation of a trained sensory panel to taste and evaluate or stablish shelf life of fish goods produced in Scanfisk Seafood, will be interesting for the future of the company.
Organoleptic characteristics of Ultrafish products were better considered than current products made in Scanfisk.
The industrialization of Ultrafish could be in the same facilities as we are working nowadays, or in a new building. Money expenses must be considered to choose the best option.
Saving water, electricity and time is possible with the implementation of Ultrafish in an industrial scale.
A second part of marketing plan has been developed in the second period of Ultrafish® (January 2019-May 2020).
About IP management, it is considered that the figure of the Utility Model, focused on the protection of it from a complex installation, with the description in the memory of the processes that take place in it (thawed + hydration) would be the best option to protect Ultrafish.
Companies from the fish industry and companies from the engineering industry have been considered potential customers.
In the second period Scanfisk has been communicating information and all the news about Ultrafish to these potential customers via social media, trade fairs and other communication events.
Scanfisk has combined an online communication strategy with an offline one, with the aim of reaching a greater number of potential customers.
As part of the commercial plan, MOWI is the first client interested in Ultrafish’s products. Taking advantage of the current business relationship MOWI will buy the new products once Ultrafish will be industrialized. Taking advantage the product will be the same reference that Mowi is buying now but with improvements (shelf life or quality for example) Scanfisk will change directly the product selled to MOWI if the industrialization will be done.
Several international fairs have been attended (Frozen Seafood Products Exhibition CONXEMAR,) and conferences (Madrid Fusion Spain and AECOC Seafood Products).
Ultrafish has been in different media and magazines (Mercasa, Retail Actual, AECOC, Inforetail) and social networks like Facebook and Instagram, as well as the website: www.ultrafish.eu.
Different merchandising has been developed (usb, pens, notebooks and shopping bags) 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. 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.
ltrasound emerged as a ‘green and innovative’ 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%.
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%.