Installation of advanced moisture analysers pays dividends for US-based processor of smoked seafood by reducing workloads in its laboratory
Most people never even think about the moisture content of the smoked fish they eat.
In fact, many of us probably think the challenge ends with getting the fish out of the water, never imagining that getting water out of the fish might be equally important.
But to those involved in the smoked fish processing and packaging industry, particularly in the United States, where the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulates the processes utilised by these establishments, the moisture content of smoked fish is very critical to its preservation.
The water phase salt, WPS (calculated by dividing the %salt of the smoked fish by the sum of its %moisture and %salt) defines the relationship between the final moisture and salt content.
This value is critical for the preservation of smoked fish due to the potential for pathogen growth and toxin formation that can occur, especially in vacuum packaged products during refrigerated storage.
The responsibility of being in compliance with the FDA's myriad of regulations places the smoked fish industries in a position whereby sufficient frequency of testing is needed to ensure conformance with finished product specifications outlined in the FDA's Code of Federal Regulations for cured, salted and smoked fish establishments.
Therefore, the importance to smoked seafood processors of achieving the proper WPS levels in their products as well finding a cost-effective and reliable manner of testing their products in-house cannot be overstated.
However, their biggest challenge is often finding an efficient, reliable method of routine in-house testing that allows them to complete these tests in a timely and productive fashion.
Salmolux is a processor of smoked seafood and related gourmet food products.
Apart from compliance with FDA regulations, it is very important to Salmolux to send safe food products to all of its customers.
The company is very much concerned with the moisture content of its products, as well as with finding the most cost-effective, efficient, convenient and reliable method of its determination.
Cynthia Amoako-Atta, a food scientist with Salmolux, intimately understands the challenges of testing for moisture in a variety of the smoked seafood products that the company processes. Through an awkward, cumbersome and time consuming procedure that required the means of a standard microwave oven commonly found in household kitchens, Amoako-Atta typically tested samples of smoked fish for their moisture content.
The process consists of weighing the sample, drying it in the microwave oven, re-weighing the sample, and repeating the entire process often several times until a constant weight is attained.
This was all before Amoako-Atta and Salmolux discovered the advantages of the Ohaus MB series moisture analysers.
Designed to quickly, effectively and affordably measure moisture content, the Ohaus MB45 incorporates state-of-the-art halogen heating with precision weighing technology to give a fast and accurate method for moisture content determination.
It offers a simple, easy to use interface and programmable library of test parameters that allows the operator to place a sample in the tray, identify the test to be performed and simply walk away.
The MB's large LCD display is capable of displaying real time results throughout the duration of the test, and its RS232 interface allows users to connect the product to a computer, printer or other peripheral device to save, print and display results in a variety of formats.
Most importantly for Salmolux, the MB analysers allow its food scientists to perform one quick and simple test on a sample in order to achieve precise, reliable, repeatable results that would have required a great deal more time and effort to obtain in the past.
"When using the microwave ovens, my time was totally devoted to the test," said Amoako-Atta.
" I couldn't perform any other tests as I had to pay meticulous attention so that I did not burn the sample.
"However, the MB45 is simple, fast and more convenient to use.
"Initially, I had to determine test parameters for all my samples and the selected parameters were then saved to the test library.
"To determine the moisture content, I basically set the sample in the heating chamber, select its test parameters from the test library and walk away, giving me the ability to conduct other tests in the laboratory while the moisture analysis is taking place. "Also, the moisture values obtained using the MB45 moisture analyser correlated well with similar samples tested by an accredited outside laboratory that uses the AOAC official method of analysis for moisture determination.
"This makes the MB45 moisture analysers accurate enough for our in-house QC/QA purposes", notes Amoako-Atta.
Applying the MB45 has allowed Salmolux to dramatically increase its productivity and efficiency in its in-house laboratory.
Turnaround time in the laboratory is much faster, which affords Salmolux the ability to increase its bottom line by getting more products to the market faster. Salmolux scientists test more samples each day with more accuracy, and with the MB45, they now have the ability to apply themselves to other areas of their quality control and assurance.
