Vacuum Pouches for Smoked Fish and Fish Processing

Fish is oily, wet, delicate and full of sharp bits, which makes it the product that shows up a bad pouch or a bad technique fastest. It's also the product that benefits most: oxygen turns fish oil rancid and a vacuum stops that dead. Here's how smokehouses and fish processors use our range.

Whole sides

A side of smoked salmon is 550mm to 650mm long and 150mm to 200mm wide. It needs a long, narrow pouch, and that's what the 240×650mm is for, at 7.0p a bag. Trout sides and smaller salmon fit the same pouch. For very large sides or two sides in one pack, the 350×750mm.

Slide the side in skin down, tail first, on a card or board if you're sending it out. If your chamber isn't 650mm deep, vacuum and seal with the tail end folded, then turn it and seal the other end.

Fillets and portions

• 160×250mm, 1.8p: single portions of 150g to 200g, kipper pairs
• 160×300mm, 2.2p: long fillets, smoked haddock, 500g sliced salmon on a board
• 200×300mm, 2.7p: two fillets, hot-smoked salmon portions
• 300×400mm, 5.4p: 1kg to 2kg trade packs

Retail packs of sliced salmon

Sliced smoked salmon on a gold board is the picture people expect. Our 80 micron gold pouches do that with a gold back, a clear front and a euro hole to hang: the 180×275mm takes 100g to 150g of slices, the 200×275mm up to 250g. Lay slices on a gold or white board first so the pack has a flat face, and use 95% vacuum so the slices don't weld together. The retail pouch guide covers finishes.

Shellfish, whole fish and anything with fins

Crab claws, lobster, langoustine, whole sea bass with the dorsal fin on: all of them go through 65 micron film under full vacuum. Trim what you can, cover what you can't with a fold of paper, and for anything that still punctures, use the 210×650mm 130 micron pouch. It's 18.8p a bag and it's the right answer for whole shellfish. The 130 micron guide has the detail.

The wet seal problem

Fish leaves moisture and oil on the inside of the pouch opening, and a seal made across it fails. Three habits fix it:

1. Fold the top 50mm of the pouch outward before the fish goes in, then fold it back. The seal area never touches the product.
2. Pack cold, straight from the chiller, so less oil comes out under vacuum.
3. Use the double seal if your machine has one. Henkelman and Multivac do.

Chamber machines cope with liquid in the bag because the pressure drops evenly. That's why fish processors use them and why edge sealers, which suck liquid straight into the seal, don't get used. Our pouches are chamber machine only; the compatibility guide lists what fits.

Food safety for fish

Fish is one of the products the FSA's vacuum packing guidance is most concerned with, because cold-smoked fish is eaten without cooking and can support non-proteolytic Clostridium botulinum. The rule is 10 days at 3 to 8°C unless a controlling factor applies: salt at 3.5% or more in the water phase, storage below 3°C throughout, or challenge test evidence for the product. Cold-smoked salmon at typical UK salt levels often meets the salt test, which is why 14-day dates exist, but it's your product's figures that count. The food safety guide sets it out.

Freezing

Vacuum-packed fish freezes better than any other product we see. Freezer burn is oxidation of the surface where air touches it, and a tight pack removes the air. A side of salmon frozen in a 65 micron pouch at -18°C is in good order at six months. Pack, then freeze; don't vacuum pack frozen fish, as the hard edges cut the film.