A recent, possibly far-reaching development in the canning of t\ma has 

 heen the importation from Japan of cooked, cleaned and frozen alhacore loins. 

 There is a saving of over 50 percent in weight in shipping loins, compared 

 with the whole fish, and there is a further saving in labor cost in having 

 loins prepared in Japan rather than in United States canneries., An even newer 

 development has been the import€ition from Japan of sample shipments of frozen 

 tuna packed in cans which n®ed only to have oil and salt added before sealing 

 and sterilizing. 



A recent innovation in the packing of tuna has Tieen the wide acceptance 

 by the industry of automatic filling machines for the canning of chunks, 

 flakes and grated, and solid -pack tuna. At the present time, most of the 

 domestic pack of tuna is being packed with these machines, which displace 

 much of the labor formerly required in hand -packing the fish, 



TUNA BY PEODUOTS 



The domestic catch of txina, as well as imports of fresh and frozen 

 tuna, are received by canners as whole fish except for recent small imported 

 shipments of frozen cooked loined and sample shipments of frozen cooked tuna 

 in cans. Since less than half of the landed weight of the fish is packed in 

 the can, a large volume of waste material, consisting of heeds, tails, fins, 

 skins, dark meat, bones, and viscera, is available for the manufacture of by- 

 products. This waste material has been used since the early days of the in- 

 dustry, in the manufacture of fish meal and oil. 



In the early 1930 's, when a demand developed for high potency vitamin A 

 and D oils, it was foiuid that tuna livers were suitable for the manufacture 

 of these oils. The separation of the tuna livers from tha other waste products 

 was begun at that time. Considerable quantities of tuna livers also have been 

 imported and used in the man^:ifacture of tuna liver oils. 



In recent years, a considerable quantity of condensed fish solublss have 

 been manufactured from the press liquor obtained when the liquids are extrausted 

 from the tuna waste. A liquid fertilizer is also manTifactured from tujia 

 waste materials. 



Accurate information is not available on the production of tuna meal and 

 oil, since the yield of these products is included with the production of 

 meal and oil produced from Pacific and jack mackerel. On the basis of the 

 quantity of waste material available for reduction, it is estimated that there 

 were produced in 1952 about 22,000 tons of tuna meal, valued at $2,900,000 to 

 the manufacturer and 775,000 gallons of tuna oil, valuad at $^25,000. 



33 



