Only a few years ago all tuna was hand-pa eked j an operation re- 

 quiring an amount of labor next in quantity to cleaning. Today a 

 majority of plants employ machine-packing. The tuna industry is giving 

 considerable thought to ways and means whereby the laborious hand 

 cleaning operation can be mechanic edo This is not an easy problem to 

 solvco In addition to the need for - .j developing equipment to separate 

 the flesh from bone and skin, it is necessary to devise means of remov- 

 ing dark from light flesho If this is done by removing the dark flesh 

 by some mechanical device based upon the usual location of the dark 

 strips of flesh, considerable li^t meat will be removed with the dark 

 owing to variation from fish to fish. This then poses the problem of 

 hand-labor to separate the dark from li^t meat or the alternative 

 of reduction of yield of light meat. The industry is working on sev- 

 eral mechanical devices which may eventuall.y work out into a practical 

 method of cleaning tuna. 



PACKING 



Three chief types of pack of tuna are put up. The solid pack is 

 composed of transverse segments usually not exceeding three to four to 

 the can. In the chunk pack the loins are cut into smaller segments 

 before filling into the can. Flake or grated pack consists of small 

 pieces most of which will pass throu^ a ^-inch screen. 



Solid Pack 



Fitting together of three or fcur segments of tuna in a can to 

 form a neat appearing, solid pack is a fairly complex operation. 

 Until the past few years such filling was always carried out by hand 

 and even now a few machine packers will, on special order, put up a 

 hand pack which is considered of superior quality to the machine- 

 packed product. 



For the hand pack, cleaned loins on boards pass beneath a guillotine- 

 type cutter consisting of a heavy knife blade suspended above and at 

 ri^t-angles to the conveying belt containing the boards of tuna loins. 

 The knife moves up and down at a rate geared to the forward motion of 

 the tuna loins and such that segments about 1-1/8-inch wide are cut for 

 the usual 301 x 113 tuna cans. Generally three pieces of fish are fitted 

 into the can to form a solid surface around the circumference and 

 throughout the can„ Where necessary a fourth small piece may have to be 

 added. These operations ordinarily take place on each side of a long 

 packing table. Such a table in a typical operation might consist of an 



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