Aotearoa Seafoods' Blenheim factory is built to comply with and even exceed New Zealand government and international food processing standards. We enjoy the top rating in quality auditor MAF's Performance Based Verification standard (PBV). Areas of high and low risk have been identified and are separated, with movement between the two prohibited, eliminating any risk of cross-contamination.
Our own engineering staff have designed and manufactured much of the processing plant including the mussel size grader, de-bearder, the infra-red opening system and packing weigh head system, demonstrating our innovative ability to lead the industry on a limited research and development budget.
Statutory regulations determine that all mussels must be processed alive, so after delivery in one tonne synthetic bags specially designed to allow breathing during transport, they are held in a controlled chilled environment.
Flow through the processing chain is very rapid, taking no more than 1 hour from the beginning of the cycle until final packing. From beginning to end, the halfshell process involves:
Mechanical size grading into small, medium and large sized shells.
A manual quality check prior to the automated opening process, discarding any broken mussels.
Blanching in a steam-heated water-bath at 85°C to loosen the unwanted byssus thread (beard).
Mechanical byssus removal.
Infra-red heat treatment, raising the temperature of the mussel shell to the point where the abductor and retractor muscles become detached from the heated shell half, at which point the shell opens to facilitate easy removal of the unwanted shell half.
A final heat treatment to ensure minimum temperature specifications have been met.
Removal of the unwanted shell halves by a team of expert openers. Up to 500,000 mussels can be processed in a 7.5 hour shift.
Fibre-optic sensors monitor the individual opener's production as the mussels continue to the spiral freezer.
Prior to entering the spiral freezer, the mussels are rapidly cooled in 3°C water.
After exiting the spiral freezer, a fine water spray coats the mussels with a thin protective layer of ice.
Frozen to -18°C, the mussels are weighed and packed according to their specific destination.
