CHAPTER 16 



Processing Fish Meal and Oil 



Charles F. Lee 



Sources of Raw Material 



In the United States, fish meal and oil and condensed solubles are 

 generally all products of the same operation, using as source of raw mate- 

 rial either whole raw fish or waste from fish canneries or other food fish 

 operations. By far the most important American source of fish for meal, 

 oil, and solubles is the menhaden (see Chapter 11), one of the few species 

 that is used entirely for industrial products. Alaska herring now also goes 

 entirely for meal and oil but represents a minor resource. Otherwise, meal 

 and oil in the United States are produced from wastes from food fish 

 industries. Some of these sources will be discussed briefly (see also ref. 9). 



Tuna. Tuna has become the nation's most important food fish and al- 

 most 100 per cent of the catch is canned. Thus the supply of cannery 

 waste is so large that tuna meal accounts for about 8 per cent of the 

 annual production, second only to menhaden. Tuna meal is primarily a 

 West Coast product with the largest landings and canneries being located 

 at Terminal Island and San Diego, California. 



Herring. The sea herring is the main resource on which the meal and 

 oil industries of Iceland, England, and all the northern European coun- 

 tries are dependent. In the United States, Alaska and Maine both produce 

 herring meal. Alaska's is a whole herring meal while in Maine the catch 

 is used primarily for canned sardines, with only excess fish, unsuitable 

 fish, or cannery wastes going to the meal plants. 



Pilchard, Anchovy, Pacific Mackerel, and Jack Mackerel. These four 

 species are grouped together because they are all caught in the same gen- 



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