The increase in the price of tuna that occurred in these late years (the skipjack has lately gone as high as 1600US$/ton) prompted producers of canned products to look for technologies that might enable process optimization. FMC has developed new technologies to optimize the cooking phase so the least weight loss occurs.

Canned tuna is among the products most widely demanded and consumed worldwide.

This success among consumers is due to its quality and nutritional characteristics; 100 grs of tuna, in fact, contribute 200 kcal while being a major source of essential fatty acids, the OMEGA 3 which helps reduce the level or LDL, the bad cholesterol, in blood.

Fully aware of this new market requirement, FMC has investigated on how the cooking phase could be optimized, since this is the most critical step in terms of final yields and quality of end product. Following these investigations, they succeeded to match the advantages of the vacuum with the high technology offered by a software capable of further improving cooking.

The VPCC-Vacuum Pre-Cooker and Cooler can assure vacuum cooking and cooling performances: low oxidation of outside surfaces, reduced loss due to cooking, low nutritional loss, removal of volatile matters (such as ammonia, ammines, hydrogen sulphide) as well as reduced labour requirement in the cleaning stage. Combining the TUNA_CAL software, the VPCC high is enhanced so leading to the optimization of process yields, which marks the gap to other steam cookers available on the market.

This software optimises cooking, increases yield, reduces cooking times, saves energy and water, avoiding oxidation and overcooking


 

Working principles

First, information such as the type of fish, size, initial and final backbone temperature, maximum cooking time and type of cut applied to the fish must be entered. Then, the mathematical model analyses multiple critical factors in real time, makes the calculations and adjusts the precooking process through a hands-off automatic procedure.

Tuna-CAL elaborates a thermal profile for every single cookingca, predicting and elaborating the ideal cooking recipe, considering heat transmission and cooking value.

For better cooking control and remote supervision, FMC FoodTech has also foreseen that tuna pre-cookers can be connected by network architecture, which includes an “Internet Remote Control” or a “Modem Remote Control”, the selection of the operating mode being done directly by the customer. In both cases the company offers the customer a controller, a local panel, as well as a FMC FoodTech host and a customer backup host.

The controller is a Plc automation for the pre-cooking and cooling cycle management. The local panel is used by the operator for the control of the manual handling and pre-cooking and cooling cycles. The FMC host is a personal computer on which recipes are processed, diagrams and historical reports are archived and where the process can be supervised in real time. The customer backup host is a software backup to guarantee greater security in case of host failure.

The process remote supervision allows FMC to monitor, give immediate assistance and consultancy to tuna processors. Through this network architecture, the cooker operators can the process parameters in real time or change some operative parameters, if the need be. 

The advantages achieved in the cooking stage are further enhanced by the remaining part of the FMC tuna processing Line: Tuna Fillers for cans filling with tuna, Oilers and Seamers for oil dosing and can seaming, Retorts for sterilization, make the portfolio of machines offered by FMC.

The outstanding features of these machines are versatility, simplicity and hygiene.

Notwithstanding this, FMC is relentlessly improving and aligning its range of products to the market upcoming demand through the work of a team of Food Technologists who, besides carrying out Research, are also committed in supporting customers for the improvement or optimization of their processing.