China's traditional luxury seafood processing products, such as scallop sea cucumber shark's fin and dried rice, are almost all processed by dry methods.
Studies have shown that the use of traditional natural or artificial hot air dry processing of the above sea products, water-soluble and heat-sensitive nutrients and other active substances have a certain loss, at the same time, the volume of the products is reduced, rehydration is difficult, and surface crusts are also easy to occur. Cracked fat oxidation, resulting in product surface discoloration and other quality defects, affect the uniformity of product quality and tolerance. If vacuum refrigeration technology is used instead of traditional methods to process marine products, it will effectively overcome the above-mentioned deficiencies. It can not only ensure the homogeneity of the finished product quality, but also improve its appearance and intrinsic quality, and increase economic efficiency.
Vacuum freeze-drying technology can significantly improve the quality and grade of products, but it is slow to promote in the aquatic products processing industry. The reason for this is that decision makers and investors mainly have four concerns:
First, the one-time investment in equipment is more, domestically produced ZDG-60 needs 1.5 million yuan, ZDG-100 needs 2 million yuan, the cost of imported equipment is higher.
The second is the high processing cost of vacuum freeze-drying equipment.
Third, the supply of raw materials for aquatic products (especially sea products) is not stable. Production can not be carried out continuously for the whole year, and it takes a long time in the off-season.
Fourth, it is worried about the market of products.
China's aquatic products processing industry has experienced sluggish operations in recent years, and some enterprises are in semi-discontinued state. Most of these companies bring their own refrigeration equipment or refrigerators. Investors can fully use these ready-made plant equipment and only need to add vacuum drying corresponding to their production capacity. Equipment can produce vacuum freeze-dried foods, thereby greatly reducing disposable equipment investment.
From the perspective of processing costs, according to the information provided by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, processing fees for vacuum freeze-dried foods are more than twice that of frozen foods and canned foods, but their sales and storage costs are low.
From the total cost of the entire processing and distribution process, vacuum lyophilized foods are 1.02 times that of canned foods, which is 1.28 times that of frozen foods. The three are almost the same. If lyophilized, it is the more expensive raw materials for marine health products such as marine products and marine drugs. Therefore, the proportion of raw material costs to the total cost will be very close. At this time, the advantages of high-quality, high-grade, high-priced, freeze-dried foods will be shown.
The raw material production of aquatic products is not stable, and the output of varieties varies greatly each year, and the seasonality is strong. This is a major feature of aquatic products production.
At present, the international market has high demand for high-grade and high-quality vacuum freeze-dried foods in terms of quantity and variety. Therefore, it is necessary to break the traditional single production and business model and engage in the production of serialized and diversified products. Freeze-dried food factories can choose other kinds of foods according to their geographical conditions, depending on the season, to ensure the continuity of production. This will not only facilitate the organization of production, improve the utilization of equipment and economic benefits, but also enrich the product variety of enterprises and enhance their ability to withstand market risks. As for the marketing of products, from the perspective of foreign markets, the demand for freeze-dried foods has increased year by year. As long as the product quality is excellent, the export market has great potential. Domestically, with the continuous improvement of people’s living standards, the demand for dietary standards is getting higher and higher, and the demand for high-quality, high-grade freeze-dried foods has a great potential. As long as producers and proprietors do a good job in propaganda and guidance work, they will surely get the market’s Good return.
The above discussion and analysis show that the application of vacuum freeze-drying technology in China's aquatic product processing industry is feasible and has bright prospects. The application of vacuum freeze-drying technology will undoubtedly inject new vitality into China's aquatic products processing industry that is about to enter the 21st century, and together with other high-tech technologies, it will play a huge role in promoting the future development of China's aquatic product processing industry.