The Danish company AquaPri produces handpicked luxury seafood like eel, trout, trout roe and caviar. In its harvesting plant, a large part of the trout roe is processed as Sujiko for the Japanese market. Sujiko is a northern Japanese speciality, only consumed on or off the Hokkaido peninsular.
For proper Sujiko AquaPri's Japanese customers have their own specialists working in the Danish plant from November to January, which is the season for slaughtering. The roe is processed, salted, graded and packed in special packing of 5kg for the Japanese market.
AquaPri has 15 inland trout farms and five trout farms at sea. Most of the large trout from 3kg up to 5kg are farmed at the sea farms off the coasts of Denmark. Every year in April the trouts are transported from the inland trout farm to sea. In November/December after 7-8 months at sea, the trouts have tripled their weight and are ready for slaughtering. In large well boats they are then carefully transported to the harvesting facility. During a shorter season for other products in February/March the production also runs; for the rest of the year the facilities are closed down.
Trying to fight condensation
A huge amount of water is used during the processing and the creation of condensation in the slaughtering facilities was a never-ending challenge. Manual cleaning of the ceiling was continuously done and was still not sufficient to fulfil the strict HACCP regulations as to condensation control.
AquaPri contacted Munters and a solution for eliminating the condensation problem was presented.
Munters condensation control
A desiccant dehumidifier type MXT7500 was installed with duct work for distribution of the dry air just beneath the ceiling. The dehumidifier works with a nominal airflow at 7,500m³/h and a humidity sensor placed under the ceiling controls the unit to keep the relative humidity below 60%RH.
In the short season of slaughtering the factory runs in two shifts, where after the cleaning of the facilities starts. Prior to installation of the dehumidification system the drying after cleaning was incomplete and consequently the formation of condensation on the ceilings became a problem right after re-start of the production at 6.30am.
Today the dehumidifier is in operation from right after finalised cleaning and already after 1-1½ hours of operation the facilities are dry.
Though the trout roe processing includes the use of large amounts of water, the dehumidifier MXT7500 prevents the critical condensation at the ceilings all through the two shifts.
Improved employee comfort
Facility manager Mr Jens Paag appreciates the improved hygiene within the production facility and so does the Japanese customer that imports more than 50% of the annual 400t of trout roe produced at AquaPri.
HACCP regulations are fulfilled and as a nice spinoff the employees experience a significant improvement of the indoor climate conditions. As the air is no longer very humid and misty they feel much healthier, with less coughing and discomfort.
