As evidence of that, the plant had expected a catch to come in the night before my August visit, which would have put them into full operation. But an at-sea delay meant the catch would not come in until the evening, leaving much of the equipment and workers off for the day.
And in a Trident seafood plant of Alaska, that is simply the way of the world, as are the dynamics and demographics of the workforce, of which there were about for the season. Before the season begins each year, Trident assembles its workforce, comprised of residents, university students, and many international workers primarily from Mexico and the Philippines, to travel to Alaska to work at the Ketchikan plant.
While this is of benefit to the workers, many of whom come back year after year and recruit family members as well, it also provides an on-site crew, so the plant can quickly begin operations when a catch arrives. With only a radio call to alert the plant that fish are on the way into the dock, the first step when a tender arrives at the Ketchikan dock, carrying , to , pounds of fish, is a quality control check. The fish will be inspected, the temperature measured, and reports passed along.
Then the caught salmon will be pumped out of the hold and sorted by species primarily pink, sockeye, and chum , with the amounts of each varying by season. Once off the boat, the plant process begins with the fish placed in tanks of refrigerated sea water to control the first wash of the fish. Water temperature is closely monitored, and the fish may be held in this tank for minutes up to a day.
If not already done on a processing boat, the head is cut off, the guts removed, and the salmon eggs roe pulled out and separated from the viscera to be processed in the egghouse. The viscera are not discarded, however, they are simply separated to be used in fish oil, meal, or other byproduct.
Because the roe is a ready-to-eat RTE food, its operations are completely separated from the cannery and fillet operations, following the more intensive RTE guidelines with increased ATP environmental swabbing, and a dedicated brining line — through which the eggs travel for exactly 45 minutes for curing. The vacuum-packed eggs then go through a metal detector and into a freezer to be shipped out.
Altogether, it will have been only 24 to 48 hours from the time the boat docked with the fish until the packaged roe goes out the door. As the roe is being processed in one part of the plant, the fish is being filleted, skinned, sorted by size and quality, and put into totes to be iced down for 24 to 48 hours. This is done, in part, to let it age as needed to remove the pin bones. As one of the largest cannery operations in Alaska, the plant has 12 lines on which it processes RTE canned salmon in four sizes: quarter-pound, half-pound, one-pound, and four-pound cans — there are only three companies in Alaska that produce four-pound cans.
But because a catch had not come in, the workers were conducting the once-a-season recanning operation of underweight cans. Each can is manually opened by a worker; the contents are poured into a new can and weighed. The new can is then sealed, cleaned and coded — with both an ink stamp and embossing, because the oiliness of the fish could cause rub-off of the ink.
Whether undergoing canning or recanning, cans are frequently visually examined as CCPs to ensure container integrity. Once the cans are sealed, they undergo a retort cook step, with validation through colored tags — purple changing to light green and white stripes turning to black indicating that the cans were subject to the steam process and had not bypassed the retort. Continuous recording charts and manual records are meticulously reviewed to verify all product was cooked for the proper time at the proper temperature.
Seam checking is also a CCP, with the facility utilizing a seam scope that takes electronic images of the seam cross-section to validate its overlap and show any wrinkling as an indication of tightness. Another FSQA function is monitoring weight control. To ensure accuracy and regulatory compliance, all scales are recalibrated and batteries checked on a daily basis.
As an exception to FDA regulation, canned salmon is allowed to be shipped unlabeled to offsite warehouses because Alaska salmon canners participate in a unique voluntary cooperative agreement between FDA, industry, and the Seafood Products Association SPA , the internationally recognized thermal processing authority. The agreement includes the requirement for every lot of canned salmon to undergo sensory evaluation and additional container integrity screening when labeled at the offsite warehouse.
In addition to its Alaskan vessels and processing operations, Trident has six processing plants in the Continental U. At Anacortes, the fish block is removed from its cardboard container and sliced horizontally then vertically into strips, while maintaining its frozen state throughout.
The sticks are battered and breaded and par-fried to be shipped to retail. At Anacortes, a number of other value-added products also are made from a variety of fish species, such as cod, salmon, tilapia, and mahi mahi, some of which are made into burgers.
The Anacortes plant has three lines, all of which are on wheels, so they can be reconfigured daily. This is both to enable best fit for the intended production and for sanitation purposes.
The lines are wheeled out each night, the area and equipment completely cleaned and sanitized, and the equipment brought back in the next morning. The only permanent fixtures are the fryers, freeze tunnels, and packaging lines. In addition to its three CCPs — metal detection, batter maintaining temperatures below F, and label verification for allergens — the facility is transitioning to a custom all-digital data-management system. With its real-time access and monitoring, the data can be viewed anywhere in the system, and will enable the facility to go paperless within the next year.
The Everett facility produces cold- and hot-smoked perishable salmon products and retort smoked salmon non-perishable products, with its smokehouse operating 24 hours a day year round, and the plant producing both retail and foodservice smoked-salmon products along with industrial byproducts that will be further processed into human or pet products.
The CCPs at Everett are the fish dry curing or wet brining, smokehouse temperatures to control Clostridium botulinum and vegetative pathogens during hot smoking, cooler temperatures, metal detection, and labeling of allergens and handling statements.
Hot-smoked fish are maintained at a minimum internal temperature of F for 30 minutes while cold-smoked must stay below F ambient throughout the cold-smoking step. The plant is also highly focused on pre-requisite programs.
Our pre-requisite programs are the cornerstone of our food safety system. Essentially our rate of microbial removal through pre-requisite programs GMPs and SCPs must be greater than the rate of microbial introduction; or residence equals reduced risk of pathogen occurrence. As such, the company follows intense responsible-fisheries-management practices in Alaska and is very careful about ensuring its practices are sustainable.
To ensure waste is minimized as much as possible, the company invests in research and development aimed at extracting every bit of value from the fish, and it has been diversifying its markets to create better use of the byproducts, such as for fish meal and animal feed and food. In addition to strong internal food safety systems, Trident participates with industry associations on food safety initiatives that go well beyond fundamental regulatory requirements.
The samples are tested for quality and compliance and the reports provide support documentation for certification of canned salmon export shipments. Most of its plants are also GFSI certified, including its three catcher-processor vessels — the first vessels to achieve BRC certification in the food industry.
So what are the lessons I learned through the years? Work for an effective leader. A good leader has a long-term perspective, inspires trust, empowers employees and is committed to quality. Without such leadership, the best quality system or food safety program will likely fail. Select the right guru s. Knowledge, experience, and judgment provide wisdom. What credentials are required for your resources, whether guru, advisor or online source s?
Utilize sustainable quality systems and food safety programs. A quality system and food safety program must be maintained at a steady level without periodically exhausting resources.
From these, following are a few practical solutions for our more complicated times. Quality assurance work consists of science, statistics, and other fact-based measurements. Obtaining the facts help make difficult decisions easier and help one to be a better manager.
Customer relations are an underutilized tool in the quality assurance toolbox. Quality assurance and quality control are used interchangeably. Quality assurance happens before, during, and after a product is made.
Quality control happens when the product is made. Compliance with essential pre-requisites e. Shift-Command-D : Open the desktop folder. Shift-Command-F : Open the Recents window, showing all of the files you viewed or changed recently. Shift-Command-K : Open the Network window.
Option-Command-L : Open the Downloads folder. Shift-Command-N: Create a new folder. Shift-Command-O : Open the Documents folder. Shift-Command-T : Show or hide the tab bar in Finder windows. Option-Command-D : Show or hide the Dock. Option-Command-P : Hide or show the path bar in Finder windows. Command-J : Show View Options. Command-K : Open the Connect to Server window. Control-Command-A : Make an alias of the selected item. Command-N : Open a new Finder window.
Command-T : Show or hide the tab bar when a single tab is open in the current Finder window. Option-Command-T : Show or hide the toolbar when a single tab is open in the current Finder window. Option-Command-V : Move the files in the Clipboard from their original location to the current location. Command-Y : Use Quick Look to preview the selected files. Command-1 : View the items in the Finder window as icons. Command-2 : View the items in a Finder window as a list. Command-3 : View the items in a Finder window in columns.
Command-4 : View the items in a Finder window in a gallery. Command—Left Bracket [ : Go to the previous folder. Command—Right Bracket ] : Go to the next folder. Command—Up Arrow : Open the folder that contains the current folder. Command—Control—Up Arrow : Open the folder that contains the current folder in a new window.
Command—Down Arrow : Open the selected item. Right Arrow : Open the selected folder. This works only when in list view. Left Arrow : Close the selected folder. Command-Delete : Move the selected item to the Trash. Shift-Command-Delete : Empty the Trash. Command—Brightness Down : Turn video mirroring on or off when your Mac is connected to more than one display.
Option—Brightness Up : Open Displays preferences. This works with either Brightness key. Control—Brightness Up or Control—Brightness Down : Change the brightness of your external display, if supported by your display. Add the Control key to this shortcut to make the adjustment on your external display, if supported by your display. Command—Mission Control : Show the desktop. Control—Down Arrow : Show all windows of the front app. Option—Volume Up : Open Sound preferences.
This works with any of the volume keys. This works with either Keyboard Brightness key. Option key while double-clicking : Open the item in a separate window, then close the original window.
Command key while double-clicking : Open a folder in a separate tab or window. Command key while dragging to another volume : Move the dragged item to the other volume, instead of copying it.
Option key while dragging : Copy the dragged item. The pointer changes while you drag the item. Option-Command while dragging : Make an alias of the dragged item. Option-click a disclosure triangle : Open all folders within the selected folder.
Command-click a window title : See the folders that contain the current folder. Learn how to use Command or Shift to select multiple items in the Finder. Click the Go menu in the Finder menu bar to see shortcuts for opening many commonly used folders, such as Applications, Documents, Downloads, Utilities, and iCloud Drive.
Document shortcuts The behavior of these shortcuts may vary with the app you're using. Command-B : Boldface the selected text, or turn boldfacing on or off. Command-I : Italicize the selected text, or turn italics on or off.
Command-K : Add a web link. While general preferences have the most priority in what is defined as truly helpful for use, online resources have reported some keyboard shortcuts being more popular or commonly beneficial than others.
These shortcuts are reported to be the most common time savers when performing common computer software tasks. This can be more efficient than using a mouse to click through or minimize several programs as users navigate through their software. Other keyboard shortcuts may be less commonly demanded by users but still potentially beneficial to you. MoneyTalks News and Buffer recommended several additional keyboard shortcuts as potential ways to boost organizational productivity.
More innovative developments are on the way in an attempt to further improve efficiencies, and you may be able to take advantage of them quite soon.
One recent development by a team of researchers extends keyboard shortcuts with arm and wrist gestures so that users can work more quickly with rotations using sensors. Both of these may be considered useful, or even become commonplace in the near future. This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible.
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