Project Page Views: [ 782 ]
| Project Metadata Element | Details |
| Project Title | Process for Extracting Edible Crab Meat from Bodies and Legs Often Considered Waste |
| Research Area | Water |
| Project Acronym | |
| Principal Investigator or Lead Irish Partner | Charles Lamb |
| Lead Institution or Organisation | CBL Ltd. |
| Lead Country | Ireland |
| Latitude, Longitude (of Lead Institution) | 52.90458, -7.72413 |
| Lead Funding Entity | Environmental Protection Agency |
| Approximate Project Start Date | 15/08/2002 |
| Approximate Project Finishing Date | 15/08/2003 |
| Project Website (if any) | |
| Links to other Web-based resources | |
| Project Keywords | Water; Food manufacturing; Sterile; Crab meat |
| Project Abstract | Our goal is to provide a prototype of our production process to establish its efficiency and food safety production parameters. A prototype has already been constructed, however it is not of the hygiene standard to produce food quality product. The new prototype will be manufactured from materials such as stainless steel. This new prototype will allow for the determination of the quality of the produced meat. To-date using a basic prototype we have achieved substantial efficiencies in the reduction of waste in this meat production process. A new prototype built using stainless steel will establish if this new systems is capable of hygienically removing meat from crab legs and body centres. The system will provide saleable white crab meat from material which has traditionally been dumped. Traditionally only meat from claws has been recovered which is about 7.5% of the live weight of crabs. The prototype constructed to date can recover a further 10% of the white meat from frozen raw material. Limited tests have shown that recovery could be as much as further 17% on freshly cooked raw materials. The new prototype will determine exactly how much additional meat can be recovered. This new prototype can satisfactorily operate on re-circulated water so retaining better flavour in the product and using substantially less water than any other systems available. The separation system, used in this new prototype also provides clean shell; the natural polymer kelvar as a by-product because of the improved separation of the Chitin polymer should be saleable quality and this will be an additional benefit. A further goal from the project is to determine acceptable method or combination of methods of keeping the recirculation water sterile, either by keeping it hotter, using salt, ultra violet light, chilling of water, use of Hydrogen peroxide in the form of Glyroxyl or the use of Ozone. The flavour and colour of the final product is very important. Because of decreased water usage in our proposed process the requirement for clean drinking water would be reduced as also would the effluent disposal requirements. In both these ways the drain on energy as a resources would be lessened. Because of the decreased use of water in this new process the flavour of the meat produced will be enhanced. This new production process will provide a better ratio of recoverable valuable food, in the form of crab meat, from crab stock. As the water used is recycled it is used as a convenient means of producing sterile food product by using standard ozone as an additive in the production process. This is a major benefit over any other system used to-date in the seafood meat producing industry. The only system available to achieve comparable meat recoverable ratio is of a very large construction and operates on the continued use of very large quantities of water. The meat produced from this said system is inferior due to flavour loss in the quantity of water used. As this is a food producing operation the water must be potable thus there are environmental/economic implications directly related to the quantity of water used. The separation of meat from shell means that the shell becomes a cleaner waste product possibly suitable as source for Chitin polymer or clean product for landfill thus reducing contamination to the areas where it has traditionally been dumped. Economically, everyone involved benefits; sale of machinery, sale of extra meat, less pollution. The feasibility of using this new separation process in other food production areas may also give advantages which have to be further investigated once the new prototype is constructed. |