Competetive Food Processing in Norway

The project KMB Competitive Food Processing in Norway started in 2007, and the primary activities was finished in 2011. In 2012-2014 the last part of the project work was finished, resulting in a Doctoral Thesis. After seven years of intensive research o n superchilling, the State-of-art boundary has been moved considerable, from a rigid concept with several disadvantages and limitations due to industrial implementation; to be a solid method for extending the shelf-life of fresh food products. The most co mmon objection towards the superchilling concept has been that superchilled products are partially frozen and thus, the physical quality after thawing is reduced compared to after common refrigeration processes. This statement has become forcibly disprove d throughout several experiments with both fish- and meat products, and the results show redoubling of extended days of shelf-life in microbiological quality. Sensory quality of superchilled and chilled pork shops has been carried out to reveal any differ ences between superchilled and chilled product during storage. The analyses were performed by an expert team. Correspondingly to previous experiments, the expert team could not notice any differences up to the point where the chilled sample passed the mic robiological quality limit of 107 CFU/g. The main tasks within superchilling has been the identification of the parameters which have the most influence on the superchilling process and the end product quality; ice fraction, development of ice crystals du ring superchilling, superchilling temperatures, product category, superchilling methods and thawing after superchilling. Ice fractions between 5-20 % gives extended shelf-life and ensure good product quality. This robustness was not foreseen, but enables commercialization of the superchilling concept. In addition to increased product yield and increased production capacity and reduced environmental impacts of approximately 30 % when changing from chilled to superchilled value chain, superchilling may res ult in new markets and increase in market share for fresh foods. Raman spectroscopy can be used to measure important characteristics of the composition of fat in meat and fish. It is shown that such measurements can be done by inexpensive Raman instrumen t (approx. 400 kNOK), which makes the method interesting and available for the industry. Ice fraction measurements by depiction NIR of Salmon gave good results, and it is shown that the QVision instrument QPoint is suited for online measurements of ice fr action in pieces of fish and meat. The equipment is calibrated against calorimetric measurements of several different fresh food products. On-line measurements of core temperature in heat-treated products such as liver paste and fish cakes is carried out and tested online. Previous theory regarding color loss in salmon fillets is caused by changes in light scattering due to physical-chemical changes in muscle after slaughter, was disproven. Changes in color are truly depended on chemical changes, and in less degree due to changes in light scattering. The chemical changes which are likely to give color changes are not proven. It is demonstrated that different freezing temperatures gives different ice crystals in frozen salmon, and thus variation in light scattering. Methods for automatic measurements of gapping, chip, thickness variations, uniformness and shape in tales and loins for white fish, are developed in the project. The method manages to sort and grade with 80 % correct classification, compared to manual grading. Further, 90 % of loins of good quality were correctly graded. A method for gripping of overlapped loins and filets based on vacuum suction cups and measuring of altitudes to better the automation of the filet production in the fish ind ustry is developed. The method shows promising results on loins due to a more even surface compared to fillets. For overlapping fillets, good results are obtained when the system was applied on the skin side of the fillet, but the method requires more dev elopment for use on the muscle side of the fillet. Gripping with vacuum suction cups, together with image analysis for automatic detection of flat, uniform areas are showing promising results.

The marine and the agricultural food industry are important for settlement and economy in Norway. Diversity in market related challenges has led to different strengths and focus. Food processing in Norway cannot be ?copy and paste? from our competitors. T he consortium of this initiative has identified critical knowledge and technologies that need to be developed in order to make the Norwegian food processing industry internationally competitive and able to offer the consumers a wider range of improved and safe products. Through coordinated efforts by industry, research institutes and universities from both marine and agricultural sectors, the consortium aim to solve this challenging task. The industrial partners represent the entire value chain from consu mer to production, and the potential for value creating and innovation for the consumers as well as the industry is indisputable very high. Challenges: Releasing synergies between marine and agricultural based industry, Flexible automation and online prod uction control, Identify, preserve, process, distribute and trace diversified products based on consumer demands and available raw material, Continuously secure that safe food standards are incorporated in innovations and novel technological solutions. Th e project is organised in 5 interrelated WPs and coordinated with national and international projects. Foreseen results; Concepts/models for highly automated Enclosed Processing Cells, On-line methods for important quality measurements, Efficient automati c sorting/handling of overlapping food products, Production control and value chain control systems, Prolonged fresh food shelf life, Engineering/management tools for superchilled processing, storage and distribution, Dissemination of knowledge to industr y and academia, Demonstration of value creating potential/ coming challenges through a yearly case program, Spin off projects and activities accelerating the exploitation of new knowledge and technology.