Dear Michael,
1. Your team should put more effort on studying what the temperature of the product would be. This is much more critical than the temperature of the room. In my opinion the temperature of the room could be anything as long as the temperature of the product at all stages is monitored, stable and acceptable (ie. less than 5 C for processing chilled product).
2. It is advisable to separate various processing areas and have different entrances. This will depend on your processing steps. Note that separations does not neccessarily mean a wall. It could be just a line on the floor. That would require though very good training of the staff on the good hygiene and manufacturing procedures.
3. Cold storage capacity is never enough! Just take into consideration how often you will be able to get a container in your yard. Talk to your potential shipping company and find out how capable they are into bringing refrigerated containers (that work!) in your factory.
Regarding the refrigeration systems, it is very important to know how easy and fast is to get spare parts. If you think that this could be difficult, then it is better to go for separate units so that in a case of a breakdown you wont need to stop all operations.
4. This will depend on the packing material as it will affect the freezing time (and your electricity bill!). But anyway the product will have to be covered with a sort of plastic material in the freezing trays so that it will be easy for the people in packing area to remove it from the trays.
I hope I helped you.
Thanks,
Christopher Kontonasios
General Manager
Sea Products Ltd
P.O.BOX 6132 Tanga
Tanzania
Tel: ++255 (0) 27 2646220/1
Fax: ++255 (0) 27 2646223
Email: info@seaproductstanga.com
Web Site: www.seaproductstanga.com
Physical Address:
SIDO Industrial Estate
Gofu Chini
Tanga - Tanzania
----- Original Message -----
From: Michael Stirnberg
To: Seafood research and extension information exchange
Sent: Tuesday, March 08, 2005 3:50 PM
Subject: Shrimp Processing Plant in Saudi Arabia
There seems to be some disagreement among some of the engineering companies with whom we are dealing. We are now firming up the basic parameters of the Processing Plant (approx 3000 sq mtrs) for our Integrated Shrimp Farm in Jizan, Saudi Arabia.
We plan to initially process only HOSO and HLSO shrimps in block frozen packs, with a provision to incorporate an IQF line in the future. We are not envisaging a cooking line at present.
Could we get your input, based on the existing practices in your processing plants, on the following critical aspects :
1. What is the Ambient Temperature being maintained in the Processing Area (There seem to be two options :(a) around 13 deg c (b) around 22 deg c and we
want to know your practice)
2. Is it advisable to carry out the Pre Processing / Processing / Value Addition activities in one large Hall OR Divide these activities into separate compartments, including separate entry points for personnel etc.,
3. Is there any thumb-rule for the capacity of the Cold Store with respect to the capacity of the Plant ? (eg., how many days storage is advisable)
3. Is it preferable to have a single refrigeration system to cater to Freezing, Cold Store and HVAC Systems OR do you recommend separate dedicated systems for each of these, to have greater flexibility ?
4. Do you recommend packing the shrimps in inner cartons in the processing area before freezing OR Block Freezing the Shrimps in Trays and then putting the blocks in the inner cartons in the packing area ?
Hope this is not too much of a bother, thanks for helping us out on this if you can.
Michael Stirnberg, M.Sc.
Project Director
ARABIAN SHRIMP Company
GSM - KSA : +966 - (0) 500 160 485
GSM - Oman: +968 - 9210 953
e - mail : mstirnberg@devcorpint.com
web - site : www.devcorpint.com
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