For those of you who care about the quality of the fish you catch, and are always looking for areas of improvement, here's something you might find interesting. Perhaps even a little hard to swallow?
A REVOLUTIONARY new method of freezing fish will be unveiled to seafood chiefs in Grimsby later this week.
The Grimsby Institute of Further and Higher Education has become the first and so far only commercial research facility in Europe licensed to use the Japanese Cells Alive System (CAS), which offers significantly improves flavour retention and causes less damage to the flesh of seafood.
The Institute has invested heavily in CAS and an associated refrigeration plant, which freezes using magnetism and modulated waves of cold air.
Conventional methods freeze from the outside in, with the result that the penetration of cold to the centre of the product becomes more difficult as the exterior freezes up.
The people behind CAS claim their method retains the texture and flavour of the food far better, because it is subject to a low intensity magnetic field, which ensures that fish and other types of food are lowered to freezing point more uniformly. This suppresses the migration of fats and oils and the formation of ice crystals.
Japanese CAS technology specialists ABI Ltd recently visited the port recently to complete the installation of its flagship technology. The Grimsby Institute has been working closely with Irish seafood companies who will be among the first to train with the new CAS system.
Lynton Perry, deputy director of commercial development at Grimsby, said: "This technology offers industry unprecedented access to research for new product development and explore new methods which could improve their business." The CAS system will be launched at the Grimsby Institute on Friday.