96 DESCRIPTION OF IMPORTANT FISHERIES AND THEIR PRODUCTS 



face layer occurs in the cooking and drying, but this is usually superficial 

 and may be removed during the cleaning operation. 



Cleaning. The cooked, cooled fish is dumped from the baskets onto 

 stainless steel cleaning tables which are now mostly provided with various 

 conveyor belt systems. In the more elaborate systems, fish is conveyed 

 to the cleaners while cleaned loins, blood meat, and scrap are conveyed 

 away separately. A typical cleaning sequence is as follows: The head is 



Figure 7.3. California State Inspector checking eviscerated yellowfin tuna. {Westgate- 

 California Corporation.) 



removed; the fish is skinned and split. The backbone and tail are removed 

 and pushed onto a scrap conveyor. The halves are split into quarters 

 or "loins" along the median lines. The red meat is cut and scraped from 

 each piece. Finally the loins are "polished" by rubbing loose flake from 

 the outside. 



Packing. Formerly, filling was a hand operation; now it is almost 

 entirely carried out by machines. The solid or "fancy" pack is filled on 

 a Carruther's "Pak-shaper." The loins are laid in careful order on a 

 narrow belt flanked on either side by vertical belts with semicircular 



