Membrane Filtration Technology Allows For The Desalting Of Fish Meals Without Losing Protein

Phil Black - PII Editor 25/07/2014

138 1 minute read

Listen to this article

GEA Filtration developed a process step to clearly reduce the salt and histamine contents in fish meal without losing valuable proteins. GEA Westfalia Island were involved in the development activities. For this process step, a membrane filtration plant is interposed between the separators and the evaporator.

Stick water is an aqueous product flow occurring in industrial fish processing. During the fishing season, certain fish species, such as capelin, herring, mackerel, or blue whiting are fished and processed either directly and completely, or after the filleting process, depending of the individual fish species.

Each fish species has a specific salt content and in total, the salt content in the final product exceeds the legal limit values in most of the cases. Increased salt contents results in a reduced protein content which implies a lower quality of the final product and consequently in reduced proceeds. Apart from the salt contents, the histamine portion in the fish meal also impairs quality. Thanks to the new process steps such problematic issues are now things of the past.