Proofing the Competitiveness of the BAADER Whitefish Filleting and Skinning Solutions

There is a place halfway between the North Pole and the equator, at the edge of North America. At the mouth of the St. Lawrence River to the Atlantic Ocean, located along Canada’s East Coast is Nova Scotia. The province is home to a diverse range of fresh seafood and seafood products from Canadian hard-shelled lobster and coldwater shrimp, snow crab, white fish, and more – all harvested from the cold, pristine waters of the Atlantic Ocean.

In Middleton, Annapolis County, Nova Scotia is where customer L.J. Robicheau & Son Fisheries Ltd. is operating his business in third generation. The company owns two processing plants; one in Little River and one in Middleton for processing, value-adding, freezing and packaging. The name L.J Robicheau & Son Ltd. can be found in fish markets across Canada and the United States. The Robicheau’s are in the process of updating their equipment to expand into markets globally.

In focus was the upgrading of their haddock processing line when they reached out to BAADER in the first quarter of 2020.

Haddock, a member of the cod family, is a North Atlantic white fish with a very distinctive black blotch just above the pectoral fin and an easily recognizable black lateral line running down its side. Nova Scotia haddock are harvested from the cold waters along the coast of the province and shipped all over the world. Processing often includes cutting fish by hand into fillets and freezing.

BAADER delivered a BAADER 588 Filleting Machine and BAADER 59 Skinner for testing purposes to the customer's premises in July 2020. At the same time Robicheau’s had a sample of his fish tested on a competing technology in Massachusetts and was now convinced that this was the optimal choice for him, so he requested a demonstration of that equipment in his facility.

Convinced, that the BAADER 588 and the BAADER 59 will make the race in terms of consistent throughput, yield and quality, when calibrated perfectly to the parameters of the customer's haddock, BAADER Canada technicians David Haufe and Stephen Morrissey moved mountains to be able to travel to the customer during the COVID-19 caused travel restrictions.

“We were running 500-1000 gram haddock with and without collar bones, fresh and thawed, with the customer on both lines”, reports David Haufe. “The machine was calibrated to the size of fish and his market requirement.”

After one week, the team had gathered enough data from all assessed parameters and the result was clear:

The BAADER Whitefish Filleting and Skinning Machine convinced to be the better choice for fresh and thawed fish, with and without collar bones.

“After testing various options from different equipment manufacturers, the BAADER equipment has proved to be the best solution in terms of yield, fillet quality and speed. The new BAADER 588 Filleting Machine and the BAADER 59 Skinning Machine will make our operations more cost-efficient and help us to supply an even better-quality product to the market” confirms Llewellyn Robicheau.

“I am very proud of the dedication of the team”, says Dennis Schreiber, VP Sales and MD of BAADER North America. “It is great to be reassured about the competitiveness of our processing solution in such a unique neck-and-neck race. The story also shows our willingness to go the extra mile and the partnership approach we take with our customers”.

About the BAADER 588 Filleting Machine

The hygienic BAADER 588 is designed to maximize yield, performance and fillet quality. The mechanically automated machine uses circular knife technology – including the flank knives ensuring equally consistent running of fish through the machine for high throughput. This unique and gentle cutting principle together with the saddle transport allows for gentle processing of soft fish including thawed product. Results are fillets of superb quality and smooth fillet surface with very little need for additional trimming.

About the BAADER 59 Skinning Machine

The BAADER 59 skinner is designed to process fillets at a minimum spacing of 10 cm. The machine ensures gentle handling of the fillets for highest quality for A-grade products - even on soft fish. It can be fed manually, by a BAADER 588 and BAADER 582 as well as some older generation machines. The speed can be adapted to all common saddle machines. The BAADER 59 delivers a straight fillet output for easy inspection and trimming of the fillet. The result is maximum yield and high-grade fillets.

Did you know?

The IS026 and IS028 Heading Machine compliments the above for many applications