Influence of Mechanical Processing on the Quality and Yield 



of Bay Scallop Meats 



By 



N. B. WEBB and F. B. THOMAS 



Department of Food Science 



North Carolina State University 



Raleigh, North Carolina 27607 



ABSTRACT 



The present commercial method of shucking bay scallops by hand is costly. A 

 mechanical method has accordingly been developed in an effort to reduce costs while 

 maintaining or improving the quality of the processed meats. Therefore, the mechani- 

 cal method must produce meats of a quality and yield equal to or better than that 

 presently obtained by hand processing. 



The purpose of this study therefore was to compare the quality and yield of bay 

 scallops processed by mechanical means with the corresponding values of those pro- 

 cessed by the typical hand method. The mechanical method included heat-shocking of 

 the shell-stock, roller-vibration removal of the meats and viscera and the subsequent 

 separation of the viscera from the meats. 



The quality of the scallops was measured objectively by the determination of drip, 

 volatile base, pH, and bacterial count was measured subjectively by means of a quali- 

 fied taste panel's rating the samples for odor, texture, appearance, and flavor. The yield 

 of the scallops was evaluated by (1) proximate analysis for moisture, crude protein, 

 ash, and fat, (2) amount of water absorbed, (3) amount of cooked meats obtained, 

 and (4) loss of drip from frozen meats. 



The results indicate that the quality and yield of meats from bay scallops pro- 

 cessed mechanically as described above is equivalent to the quality and yield of those 

 processed commercially by hand. 



INTRODUCTION 



The bay .scallop resource along the east coast 

 of the United States has not been fully utilized, 

 owing to the low yield of edible meat (that is, 

 of the adductor muscle), the need for hand 

 labor, and the operating pi-oblems associated 

 with processing. 



Paper number 2871 of The Journal Series of the 

 North Carolina State University Agricultural Experi- 

 ment Station, Raleigh, N.C. 



Note: This research was conducted in cooperation 

 with the U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of 

 Commercial Fisheries (now National Marine Fisheries 

 Service), under PL 88-309, Project 2-8-R. 



In recent years several workers have at- 

 tempted to develop an automatic, mechanical 

 method for the separation of the edible meat 

 from the scallop. Harris (1958) proposed a se- 

 quential method involving shock, agitation, and 

 fluid action to process the smaller species of 

 scallops, such as the bay and calico. Subsequent- 

 ly, Polito (1964), Renf roe (1964), Matzer and 

 Seidel (1965) , Marvin and Henderson (1966), 

 Wenstrom and Gorton, Jr. (1966), and Brown 

 (1967) developed various methods and appa- 

 ratus for processing scallops by the single or 

 combined application of mechanical shock, heat 

 shock, rotation, centrifugal force, pressure, 



