Equipment manufacturer Starfrost has supplied a bespoke in-line chilling system to Young’s Seafood firm Pinneys of Scotland.

With a state of the art processing facility in Annan, Dumfriesshire, Pinneys supplies Scottish smoked salmon, natural wet fish and premium seafood products including delicatessen items and value added ready meals for M&S. Pinneys is part of Young’s Chilled Division, the UK’s leading producer of seafood for foodservice and retail markets, including all of the major multiples.

Pinneys was looking to increase capacity on a new line of high value steam cooked seafood products, including shell off shrimp, lobster and crab.  The company wanted to upgrade from a manual blast chilling process to a fully automated in-line system with energy efficient cooling plant.

Freezing and chilling equipment specialist Starfrost worked alongside parent company Star Refrigeration to provide a turnkey chilling tunnel and refrigeration plant package for Pinneys.  Starfrost custom-designed a Starlite HT (Hybrid Tunnel) chiller for Pinneys following successful product trials on the test unit at its Suffolk manufacturing facility.

The multi-belt Starlite HT links the cooking and packaging line for shrimp, lobster and crab products and has a total chilling capacity of 1,500kg per hour. The in-line chiller features three 1m wide product belts within a 3.75m enclosed tunnel.  The new in-line chilling system has enabled Pinneys to boost capacity and increase product quality.

www.starfrost.com