Consumers are growing increasingly concerned with food-safety issues. Today, this includes demands for boneless fish products. Processors who are able to provide fish blocksthat meet high, boneless standards have a competitive advantage. This inevitably boosts the image of their fish blocks, increases their value and ultimately sparks interest in using this material in high-value products.

SensorX innovation

Marel responded to this food-safety need by developing the SensorX pinbone-detection system that effectively and efficiently analyses fish blocks for bone content. The solution was originally developed for fish fillets, and has been successfully operating in processing plants for over three years. This automation, which does not rely on human inspection, now brings boneless standards for block material to a new level.

Ingenious

“The Sensor X is an ingenious machine. Batches of block material pass through the unit where it is scanned for bones using low-energy X-rays. Bones and bone fragments are graphically shown in color on the equipment’s display. A signal is then sent to a discharge unit that automatically removes the batch containing bones from the material flow,” says Hannes Gunnarsson, fish consultant at Marel.

Bone removal

The batches containing detected bones are delivered to an inspection station that comes equipped with its own high-resolution display terminal, which highlights the bone location in color. Using this as a guide, an operator removes the remaining bones, and places the material on a conveyor that returns the batch to the SensorX, which performs another inspection to determine if all bones were removed. Powerful Marel MPS software tracks each batch to individual trimmers to reveal performance statistics.

Greater food safety

Sensor X is an outstanding tool that consistently monitors the block-material process –technology that has revolutionized food inspection and quality. It is designed to be integrated into the whole food processing cycle. “The success of Marel’s bone detection technology has greatly increased food and product safety,” says Hannes. “At the same time, a higher-quality boneless fish block expands potential for further processing into higher-value categories.”


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