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Processing - From The Sea To Your Plate

FISH PACKING

BRUNSWICK Sardines and Herring Snacks are carefully packed at our clean and modern packing facilities in Canada. We use a variety of sophisticated machinery and equipment, including robotics and computerized vision systems, in addition to hand packing to get the very best product from the sea, into the can, onto the store shelf and, finally, into your hands. Over the last 100 years, BRUNSWICK has custom engineered a number of processes.

Delivery
The fish arrive at the plant either directly on the vessels, by sardine carrier or by truck and are pumped into the plant using large vacuum pumps designed for handling fish. Once in the plant, fish are transported to the grading room, where they are graded for size and flumed to holding tanks, where they are held in ice and brine. Smaller herring are used for BRUNSWICK Sardines, while larger herring are used for BRUNSWICK Seafood Snacks. The salt water ice slurry refrigeration method insures that the fish are as fresh in the can as just caught. The temperature is held around 32°F and quality control inspection continues at every step of the process.

Packing
From the holding tanks, the fish are transferred to the various packing and cutting lines as required. We use three types of packing lines to pack BRUNSWICK Sardines: the traditional hand packing line, a semi-automatic packing line, and a fully-automated line. On the hand packing line, the packers use scissors to remove the head and tail and place the cut fish into the can. With both the semi-automatic packing line and fully-automated line, the fish are placed in pockets, the heads and tails are removed by machines and the cut fish are placed in cans. BRUNSWICK Seafood Snacks are packed on a semi-automated line where boneless fillets are carefully placed in the can. The heads and tails are not wasted, they are processed into fish meal and oil that is used in a number of other industries.

Pre-cooking
Cans containing fish are placed onto racks. Full racks are loaded into carts, which are then placed into a pre-cooker that uses steam to cook the fish, reducing the moisture content and firming the fish. The carts are removed from the pre-cooker, tipped to drain the water from the cans and cooled.

Seaming
The cooked cans are taken out of the racks and placed onto the seaming line where BRUNSWICK’s range of delicious sauces are added. The lid is placed on the can and hermetically seamed or sealed, conveyed to a can washer to ensure can cleanliness and then transferred to the retorts.

Retorting
The retort is a high pressure vessel used for cooking and sterilization. The canned product is cooked in the retorts for 45 to 60 minutes, depending on the product, at a temperature of 240 degrees Fahrenheit. Upon completion the cans are removed, drained and cooled before handling. It is during the retort stage that the bones in the sardines, a great source of calcium for healthy bones and teeth, are softened.

Packaging
The last step of the packing process is to put the cans into the final packaging that you are familiar with. BRUNSWICK products are then shipped to over 40 countries around the world.

Quality Assurance
BRUNSWICK operates under stringent quality control standards at each stage of the process. In addition to working under a quality management plan, or QMP, approved by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA), we also meet a HACCP plan approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). We know that it is ultimately you, the consumer, who is the final judge of quality in our products and we work hard to ensure that you have a great taste experience with every can of BRUNSWICK. It is this commitment to quality that has built BRUNSWICK into the world’s leading brand of sardines.

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