Maldives Seafood

seamaster 10 July 2008 Fish Processing 2,306 views No Comment Print This Post

Smoked fish is the end product of fish subjected to the action of smoke delivered from wood. Before smoking they are boiled and treated with salt.

Smoking can improve the taste and color of the sea food product reducing the number of bacteria and they are safe and healthy to consume.

Smoking reduces spoilage in two major ways:

1. Reducing the number of bacteria,

2. anti- oxidation effects.

We will explain to you how the smoke from wood preserves the fish from spoilage, what’s the secret behind it.

Phenols in Wood smoke have an anti –bacterial properties.

Specially smoldering fires will emit high levels of oxidative substances. Phenols in wood during smoking form a protective layer on the surface protecting the product from bacterial attack.

During the process, smoke penetrates the flesh of the fish slowly; hence the anti-bacterial effects are confined mostly to the surface of the fish.

Even after smoking high quality packing, such as vacuum packing is very necessary to store the smoked fish for a long period of time because will get spoil.

Most smoked fish products can still spoil. They require proper packaging and storage if they are to be kept for any length of time.

Packaging prevents the uptake of moisture and slows the oxidation of fish oils.

Moist fish have poor appearance and texture and often moulds are present.

Chilled storage is often used although this extends the shelf life by only 5 to 6 days.

Smoking Methods

There are two methods of smoking fish-Hot smoking and Cold smoking.

Hot smoking

Hot smoked fish are usually cooked and smoked at temperatures of 80 c to 90c. This [process destroys many contaminating vegetative bacteria

Cold smoking

Cold smoked fish are lightly brined and and smoked; with temperature not exceeding 30° C during the smoking process. Low temperatures prevent cooking or coagulation of protein, with the process designed to give the desired flavor rather than a significant degree of preservation.

Smoking gear

The gear used in the smoking of fish ranges from traditional racks, pits, drums, barrels, cabinets to modern mechanical kilns which provide accurate control processing variables.

Mechanical kilns overcome many difficulties encountered using traditional methods, permitting the production of good smoked products of consistent quality since smoking is more even and the color of the final product is more fully developed. Processing variables that can be controlled using a modern mechanical kiln include:

Relative humidity

Smoke density

Air speed

Temperature

In the Maldives smoked fish for domestic consumption are smoked on wooden racks. More advanced equipment is beginning to be used for export products in order to achieve a higher quality product and target higher paying markets i.e. the fish is smoked on steel racks in walled cabinets with sliding metal doors and smoke outlet controls.

Smoked fish products of the Maldives

Traditional methods produce smoked fish product by boiling them in brine solution for a short time of period of time. Traditional products are eaten at home or sold at Male’ fish market. Some modern plants exist now that produce smoked fish products for export to countries like sri lanka.

Smoking Chambers

Smoking chambers are the most advanced equipments used in Smoking industries.The smoking chambers are applied for drying, smoking, scalding, cooking, cooking, roasting and baking if required meat products and other products such as Poultry, fish, cheese, etc.

The closed cycle system of a smoke in these chambers assure the atmosphere protection-especially important when the chambers are installed in the building zone-and additional advantages as the great saving of used energy, and decrease of the charge mass decrement.