Plant operation — summary and special problems . — In the opinion 

 of the First Research Corporation, the ideal plant for packing frozen 

 headless shrimp vould be situated on 6. waterway, thus enabling shrimp 

 fishing vessels to unload directly into the packing plant. This would 

 eliminate excessive handling and transportation. The plant should have 

 adequate facilities for grading and packing and a well-designed flexible 

 freezer arrangement. 



Of the plants chosen by First Research Corporation as represent- 

 ative, only one incorporated all of the above desirable features. The 

 others operated under one or more of the following handicaps. 



Shrimp had to be trucked to the processing plant. 

 The plant had no freezing facilities on the premises. 

 The plant freezer was constructed as one large unit rather 

 than sub-divided to fit production needs. 



Frozen Peeled and Deveined Shrimp 



One company included in the First Research Corporation sample 

 of processors of frozen shrimp specialized in the packing of individually 

 frozen peeled and deveined headless shrimp. Equipment used, and procedure 

 followed, in the preparation of this end-product were described as follows: 



Plant procedure . — 



1. Receiving and grading: Iced fresh headless shrimp are de- 

 livered by truck in hundred-pound boxes. The boxes are unloaded through 

 a wall opening directly into a cold holding room. From the holding room 

 shrimp are emptied into a vat where the storage ice is flushed away and 

 the shrimp are washed. A conveyor belt removes the shrimp from the vat 

 and feeds them past a team of inspectors who manually remove any extra- 

 neous matter and damaged shrimp. The inspected shrimp are then fed into 

 the grading machine which sorts them into six size categories and dis- 

 charges each size through one of six metal chutes. The shrimp are caught 

 in metal containers which when filled are pxJ.led manually along roller 

 tracks to a scale. The weight is checked by a recording clerk and the | 

 shrimp are rolled back into the cold holding room to await further J 

 processing. " 



2. Peeling and deveining: The shrimp are transported in 

 buckets from the holding room to peeling machines and emptied into hoppers. 

 The machine operator removes the shrimp from the hopper and places them in 

 the machine receiver one by one. The peeled and deveined shrimp are dis- 

 charged ont.-. u conveyor feeding to an inspection station, the shells and 

 veins ave discharged onto a waste belt. 



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