Setting Up a Frozen Meat and Seafood Repacking Facility – Layout and Safety Considerations
Hi Guys,
We are a frozen meat & seafood wholesaler. We have been purchasing bulk individually packed frozen seafood & meat from manufacturer and distribute through our sales network.
We are currently looking to buy these product in bulk from manufacturer and do the repacking with our own brands packaging.
We runs our own cold room for storage, now wanting to setup a processing & repacking facility.
Our initial planned process would be :
Incoming stock from manufacturers > Store in Cold Room > Processed & cut into desired size according to our planned portion > Package into our brand packaging > Store in Cold Room > Distribute
One of the major concerns are as all our purchased products are in frozen which required to store at -18 celcius, if we are to setup our own process and packing facility what are the best design and ambient control for the said facility while we could safely process and pack our product in safe manners?
We hope we could get some professional and experience advice on this matter. Cheers !
Dear QSRKING2868,
The process you are planning, is IMO a process that should be in a -18 C production area.
As you are at the moment not handling open products, I suppose you first need to get an approval of yoour local authorities.
I do not know where you are based, but your local authoritiy may use a checklist or guide that is freely available.
I suggest you check the website of your authorities to check this.
you cannot thaw the product out, refreeze OR thawed completly and sell it
It needs to be either:
A) marked as previously frozen (if you plan on thawing)
OR
B) cut and repacked while still frozen, so you'd need to keep your facility at -18C
Thank you for your prompt response, we are located in Singapore now.
Still in midst of exploring more suggestion.
As for now we have many manual repacking process, therefore we are considering an alternative.
It could be harsh for our workforce to work long hour in such low temperature environment.
@scrampi we are not planning to thaw and refreeze this will definitely degrade the food quality
@Madam A. D-tor thank you for your advise !