North Island Mussels Ltd

The Tauranga operation contains a state of the art processing unit, utilizing the world’s first robotic mussel opening equipment with laser and camera technology.

Size graded-fresh live whole mussels are ‘heat shocked popped’ using specially developed counter current – water shower processing equipment.

The pasteurised (or sterile) product then enters the Automated Mussel Openers (AMO) hall. This cutting-edge process enables a better controlled and higher yield factor than opening mussels by traditional hand shucking. 56 Robotic manipulators ensure clean efficient processing of the bulk of the Factory production. Simply, the AMO cuts the adductor mussel on one side of the mussel leaving a half shell with meat attached, which provides a table ready presentation of one of New Zealand’s iconic sea foods, Greenshell™ Mussels.

Following visual quality inspection, the ‘Half Shell Mussel’ is Individually Quick Frozen in 15minutes down to a temperature of -18c. The continuous spiral freezing system utilizes an integral re-freezer that encapsulates the final glaze applied to the product.

Multi-head weighing technology ensures fast and accurate weighing of the product into its retail / wholesale sized units for shipment. The final product is packaged in a vertical form-fill and sealed bag placed into an inner and outer carton, protecting the contents during export many to destinations throughout the world.