BOATS & GEAR: PRODUCTS
Product Roundup
Seafood cells Certified Quality Reader looks to improve, organize fish quality data By Brian Hagenbuch laska-based company Certified Quality Foods is trying to improve the way the seafood industry collects, organizes and analyzes quality data of fish up and down the supply chain. Co-founder Keith Cox, who has a PhD in fish physiology and bioenergetics, worked for years to develop the Certified Quality Reader, a device that collects cellular data on seafood quality. Certified Quality Foods partner and vice president Chuck Anderson, a longtime grocery store seafood buyer, explained that the device has four electrodes that send electricity through the fish, which then rebound back to the handheld reader. “We’re essentially measuring the cells to
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determine how fresh the fish is. Depending on how fast or slow it comes back, we can determine how much water and fat is in and around the cells. And once you can determine that, you can tell a lot,” Anderson said. “To evaluate seafood products, the FDA uses organoleptics; sight, smell, texture. You have to be able to differentiate between 30 different smells, and these scores were very subjective, making for very noisy data,” Cox said, adding these scores were generally handwritten and then digitized, making them difficult to compile and analyze. After working with their original version of the Certified Quality Reader with everyone from major processors like Trident Seafoods and Icicle Seafoods to independent
CQR rolls out new software with a waterproof reader.
fishermen, Cox and Anderson took feedback and went back to work. For smaller processors and direct marketers, the Certified Quality Reader can pinpoint top quality when it is time to make market. “They are able to tell buyers that certain fish is in the top 5 percent of what they got for the season. They can say, ‘This is the best fish that came out of Bristol Bay this season,’ and they can charge more for it,” Chuck Anderson said. CERTIFIED QUALITY FOODS
certifiedqualityseafoods.com
Portable wash and rinse RinseKit to the rescue with freestanding shower and hand-washing stations By Brian Hagenbuch e all know sanitary conditions are sometimes not the best on fishing boats, especially smaller independent vessels. With more pressure on fleets to stay cleaner amid the pandemic, the pressurized portable shower units from RinseKit are a good option for smaller boats without bathrooms. RinseKit was originally designed by California surfer Chris Crawford, who wanted a portable post-surf shower to wash off the saltwater and sand before he got in his car to drive home. After an appearance on Shark Tank, the product took off with outdoor enthusiasts and sport fishermen, and provides a good alternative to solar showers for commercial fleets. Two models, the RinseKit Pod and the
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RinseKit Plus, come with the same shower head with five settings, from the shower setting to a mist setting. The Pod holds 1.75 gallons of water and is a smaller, easily stowed unit for smaller vessels, while the Plus will hold up to 2 gallons of water and will run for five minutes on the center setting and mist for up to 10 minutes. The shower heads have a metal hook on the back to hang them, or act as a kickstand for hands-free use. Adapters connect the RinseKit tank to a hose bib or sink faucet, and the tank takes on the water pressure from that hose or faucet up to 65 psi, pressuring in just 30 seconds. Fishermen, however, will likely want to fill the tank with still water and pressurize with it an accessory hand pump. “With the Pressure Booster Pump,
RinseKit provides up to five minutes of pressurized water.
pressure will stay in the RinseKit Pro and Plus for up to a month.We have a lot of commercial fleet drivers who are on the road for five days or longer, and they use it to shower,” said Hailey Martinez, RinseKit’s director of sales and operations. The tank can be filled with hot water, or the water can be heated with another RinseKit accessory, the Hot Rod Water Heater, a stainless immersion heater that plugs into a cigarette lighter and screws directly into both models. RINSEKIT
www.rinsekit.com
www.nationalfisherman.com
