Ustkamchatryba LLC

The process flow in the roe processing workshop is organized as follows. Sac roe is fed to the workshop via the inlet tray of a hydraulic trough to a rotary receiving table where water drains through perforated holes and sac roe is additionally manually washed with clean sea water. Fish is sorted by species and quality and placed into plastic boxes – maximum 5 kg per box. Boxes with sac roe of the dominating fish species are sent via the lower tray of the fish receiving table to a weighing station. Boxes with sac roe of by-caught fish species are sent to accumulation tables for further periodic delivery to a weighing station.

Weighing is performed in baskets on an electronic scale at the weighing terminal.

After weighing, each basket with sac roe is placed onto a roe fixing table and tipped on a moving band with scrapers. The empty basket is fed to the upper tray of the receiving table and sac roe proceeds on a plastic band with scrapers through a bath filled with brine. When entering the bath, sac roe is sprayed with brine. Brine density is controlled manually using a brine preparation device. Control is performed by two valves in accordance with rotameter readings. Recommended density of injected brine is 1.12 g/cm³. This device capable of regulating density in the range of 1.0 to 1.18 g/cm³. Sac roe holding time in the brine is controlled by running speed and varies in the range from 3 to 10 minutes. If there is no need to fix sac roe, no brine is injected into the bath and the unit is used as a feeding scraper conveyor. Downstream the roe fixing unit, sac roe is fed by a sac roe transfer conveyor into plastic baskets placed on the receiving table of a roe screening machine. Baskets are manually fed for filling and, as an amount sufficient for screening is accumulated, sac roe is unloaded onto the screen of the upper sieve.

Roe screening is performed by two twin screening apparatus in the manual screening area.

Screened roe is fed by inclined mesh troughs to screened roe feeding conveyors which place it into tubs with a holding capacity of up to 80 liters of screened roe.

The amount of roe in the tub is measured by level marks on the inner surface of the tub. Level marks correspond to 80, 60, 40 and 20 liters. After a certain amount of screened roe is filled into the tub, the conveyor is manually deactivated, the tub is moved aside for being gripped by an electric hoist, an empty clean tub is put on the place of the loaded tub and the conveyor is activated again. The loaded tub is gripped by a bath lifting fork suspended on a davit with an electric hoist, raised to the required height and moved to an area above the first salting drum which contains brine, used in the second salting drum plus 50% of fresh brine with a density of 1.18–1.10 g/cm³, in accordance with the amount of roe in the tub. Brine is filled in compliance with level marks on the walls of salting drums which correspond to 240, 180, 120, 60 and 30 liters.

The tub is manually tipped into the first salting drum, roe falls into the brine, a roe salting timer is set by the turn of a handle for time prescribed by process engineer, and the first roe salting cycle takes place while the mass of roe and brine is thoroughly mixed by a scooping ladle. (The tub proceeds to one of tub washing stations and after washing is ready for further use.) Once preset holding time expires, the timer gives a sound signal and roe is manually transferred by scooping baskets to the second salting drum which contains a required amount of fresh brine with a density of 1.18–1.19 g/cm³ filled in accordance with level marks. Brine from the first drum is drained to the sewer via a quick drain valve.

The second salting cycle is similar to the first cycle. Once preset time expires and sound signal is given, salted roe is manually transferred in baskets to perforated baskets placed on a conveyor for transfer of roe for dewatering or on stands for clean baskets. Recommended amount of salted roe in one basket is up to 20 kg, with a maximum being 40 kg. After the second salting cycle, half of brine from the second salting drum is transferred via a filter to the first salting drum, where fresh brine is added to it, and reused. The remaining half is drained to the sewer via a quick drain valve. (The filter is periodically extracted and after manual cleaning and flushing is ready for further use.) If eggs are too small and pass through basket perforations, open mesh fabric is inserted in baskets to prevent roe loss.

Baskets with salted roe are fed by a conveyor for transfer of baskets for dewatering to an accumulation station from where they proceed suspended by an electric hoist on a davit to one of roe dewatering machines where salted roe is dried, with its centrifuging time and number of basket round per minutes prescribed by a process engineer.

After dewatering, the basket with roe is transferred by an electric hoist to the area above one of antiseptic injection tables and discharged onto the table by a tipping device consisting of a spreader/hanger and hook with a cable of specified length.

Before roe transfer to the antiseptic injection table, its weight is measured by a crane-mounted scale. After being released, baskets (together with fabric inserts if they are used) are fed by an electric hoist to a basket stand where they are washed and proceed on a clean basket returning conveyor for further use. One antiseptic injection table is capable of holding up to 1,000 kg of salted roe. Each roe load is weighed and an appropriate amount of antiseptic and oil is measured and added. Antiseptic is weighed at the antiseptic filling station on an electronic batch weighing scale. Antiseptic is added to salted roe evenly spread on the table after which roe is thoroughly mixed by spatulas. Oil is added at the second stage after holding time prescribed by a process engineer. Again, roe is thoroughly mixed by spatulas.

After mixing, the swinging side of the table is opened and salted roe is fed by a scraper to an inspection conveyor with vacuum pincers, where the thin roe layer is backlit and foreign inclusions are removed by vacuum pincers. After roe is discharged from them, antiseptic injection tables are moved on rails to a washing position preventing water ingress to the inspection conveyor. After washing and wiping with napkins, the table is returned to its working position for further operation. Inspection conveyors are washed periodically in a temporarily deactivated position.

After being backlit on the plastic band of the inspection conveyor, salted roe is transferred to clean containers placed on the ground-level weighing station. The scale of this station has a function to stop the conveyor band if containers are overfilled. Filled containers with salted roe are closed and transferred by a cargo conveyor for full roe containers for further marking, tamper-evident sealing and storage.