Smoked dried fish is very popular in lake surrounding areas in Sri Lanka, but the traditional smoking process over wood embers produces fish laced with harmful chemicals. A portable smoked fish-processing unit producing healthier products with minimal levels of the chemicals associated with any smoking process was invented by three Sri Lankan researchers, preserving the health of thousands.
Yamuna Pathiraja is a Senior Research Engineer and Head of the Techno Marketing Department of the National Engineering Research & Development Centre (NERDC) of Sri Lanka. She is the co-inventor of the smoked fish-processing unit with Udaya Paranagampola and Malini Ranatunge.
Is traditionally-produced smoked fish healthy?
As Yamuna explained, smoking improves the taste of inland fish and ensures its preservation. However, the traditional way to smoke fish involves laying the fish above wood embers. According to Yamuna, there is no control over the smoking time, which is usually very long and leads to the contamination of the fish with toxic chemicals produced by the burning wood, especially harmful polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), thought to be carcinogenic.
“Traditionally produced smoked fish have unacceptable levels of PAH,” according to Yamuna, who said NERDC wanted to invent a healthier way of smoking fish and keep the PAH at safe levels.How to smoke a fish with the Smoked Fish-Processing Unit?
After trials with a lab-scale smoked fish unit, the Centre developed a portable unit that can smoke 25 to 30 kilograms of raw fish per batch and produce 16 to 20 kg of smoked fish. The innovation delinks the heating and smoking processes to control both processes independently. Cinnamon wood, a harmless seasoning ingredient, generates smoke and flavors the fish. The smoke is filtered before entering the smoking chamber, and the fish is only smoked for 15 to 30 minutes before going to the heating chamber, fueled by sawdust. As an alternative to sawdust, the chamber can be fueled by LP gas or electricity.
