Analysis of the production of salmon fillet - Prediction of production yield

- Full traceability enabled identification of mass loss during production.
- After filleting differences in weight between fillets of the same salmon occurred.
- The heading process was identified as the cause of the weight difference.
- Optimizing the heading may recover more meat and increase yield.
- A model enabling estimation of yield was developed.

The aim was to investigate the influence of raw material variation in Atlantic salmon from aquaculture on filleting yield, and to develop a decision tool for choosing the appropriate raw material for optimized yield. This was achieved by tracking salmon on an individual level (n = 60) through a primary production site. The majority of the salmon exhibited a heavier right fillet compared to the left fillet after filleting. No explicit explanation was found for this observation although the heading procedure was shown to have a large impact. A Partial Least Square model was built to predict the yield after filleting. The model was based on six pre-processing variables and allowed an acceptable prediction of the filleting yield with a root mean square error cross validation of 0.68. The presented model can estimate the slaughter yield for a certain batch before ordering from the slaughterhouse. This may facilitate optimal planning of the production of salmon fillets by ordering and assigning the right batch to the right product category to obtain an optimal yield and quality.