The receiving and unloading procedure, where the processing 

 plants are located dockside, has been described in connection with fresh 

 shrimp plants (see p. 2k9 of this chapter). l-Jhen shrimp are received by truck 

 they have already had an initial washing. One or more men manually un- 

 load the shrimp directly into the wash vat either by shoveling or empty- 

 ing the boxes. The shrimp are washed and the ice is flushed away. 



When a plant is unable to handle and process the shrimp 

 immediately on arrival, they are held on the trucks or the trucks are 

 vinloaded directly into holding bins located in the processing work area. 



First Research Corporation suggests that whenever practicable 

 present methods of unloading shrimp from vessels and trucks be replaced 

 by portable power conveyors. Conveyors of this type are presently in 

 operation in some of the shrimp canneries and are used for unloading 

 shrimp from both vessels and trucks. 



2. Inspection and grading: When quick freezing was first 

 adopted by the industry a id-de variety of package sizes vras used and 

 little attention was given to size grading before packaging. The 

 grading that was undertaken was a hand operation. This method still 

 prevails in some of the smaller plants. Recently perfected grading 

 machines have replaced hand operation in nearly all of the larger 

 plants. Moreover, package size has been standardized. The standard 

 package today is the five-pound carton, with other sizes accounting 

 for only a small part of the total production. The present method of 

 inspecting and grading shrimp, as detailed below, is based upon a sur- 

 vey of six plants, all using grading machines. 



A conveyor belt removes the shrimp from the vrash vat and feeds 

 them into the receiver of the grading machine. As the shrimp move from 

 the wash vat to the grading machine, they pass inspectors who remove all 

 extraneous matter and shrimp of visually inferior quality. A single 

 operator mans the grading machine, which mechanically sorts the shrimp 

 into four size categories ajid discharges the graded shrimp onto four 

 conveyor belts or through four metal chutes for delivery to the packing 

 stations. Some plants have additional inspectors stationed between the 

 grader and each of the four packing stations to check machine errors in 

 grading. 



The six plants inspected by First Research Corporation that 

 process frozen headless shrimp all have comparable operational facilities 

 and functions. Installations for moving shrimp from the wash vats to the 

 grader and thence to the packing stations appeared adequate and further 

 mechanization was not indicated. 



There were significant differences betvreen individual plants in 

 the man-hours required to unload, inspect, and grade a hundred pounds of 

 headless shrimp (see table V - 50 )• These differences may have been due 



255 



