How a Tinned Fish Company Produces 30,000 Cans per Day — Vendors

Pinhais, located in Portugal, is the only tinned sardines producer that still processes and packages the fish by hand. This women-dominated cannery produces 30,000 tins of sardines daily, which they ship to over 60 countries. Watch the women perform the traditional 12-step canning process they have followed since 1920.

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Credits:
Producer: Connor Reid
Field Producers/Directors: Anna Muckerman, Mohamed Ahmed
Camera: Anna Muckerman, Mohamed Ahmed
Editor: Anna Muckerman, Mohamed Ahmed

Executive Producer: Stephen Pelletteri
Supervising Producer, Operations: Stefania Orrù
Supervising Producer, Development: Gabriella Lewis
Audience Engagement: Frances Dumlao
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– The main difference from Pinhais from the other producers is that we are the only fish cannery that still does the traditional method, meaning that we still do everything by hand. Every single part of the 12 steps, we still do it as it was done in 1920. When all the ladies are really working, we could produce, on a good day, 25 to 30,000 tins. We do sardines with four recipes, one in olive oil, the other one in spiced olive oil, with tomato, and with spiced tomato sauce. (upbeat music) The first step is done in the harbor with Emilia where we choose the best fish. (Emilia speaking in Portuguese) – We need to have the right size of fish but also fish that is fresh and we really should guarantee that the fishermen are taking care of and it’ll be bought at the fair price for them to keep on fishing to make it sustainable throughout the years and make sure that this industry lives on. (lively music) There was not fish today coming straight from Matosinhos but fortunately, Portugal has like an amazing coast for the fresh sardines. So we got them a little bit further south and we got 6.2 tons of fish and they’re now being placed in brine. Brine is water and salt. So the main purpose of the brine is also to mimic what the environment of the sardine is at the sea. So the level of salt and the water is just as balanced as if you were swimming out in the ocean. And they stay here from 20 to 45 minutes to make the flesh of the fish tighter for then the next step, that is the cutting of the fish. Here in the factory, we are approximately 80 people. These 80 people, they all do every single step of the process. What the ladies do here, they pick up the sardine and one movement of the wrist, they take the entire head and when they pull, they take the entire bowel. We do not want the bowel to stay inside the sardine. If you have the bowel, you have the sour taste. This is why we have kept the traditional method of doing it by hand because by hand, you can take the entire bowel instead of cutting it like that and remaining it inside. (person speaking in Portuguese) – So they are placed like this with the tail up so to guarantee a proper cooking of the entire fish. After this, they go into the shower. They are washed over here and you can see the excess blood coming out and they go all this way up to the trolley where they will then be pushed inside the oven to be cooked. The fish preserve industry started just before the first World War. Pinhais is one of the three remaining canneries that still exists here in Matosinhos out of the 52 that existed in the ’50s. The main reason why we have mostly women in the production is because their husbands are fishermen. So they go out at sea during the night, they bring the fish into the harbor and then they pass it on to the ladies, to the wives, and they are here preparing the tins. This is the cooking, team cooking. Only water, 110 degrees from seven to 12 minutes depending on the size of the sardines. Today they are being cooked for nine minutes and this is your perfect lunch right here. Good fish only smells after cooking and I’m sorry you cannot feel the smell but the smell is incredible right now. So this stays to cool at least one hour and then we move to the canning. Let’s follow the sardines. (Patricia chuckling) (cans rattling) This is the canning stage. So the tail is taken off here. Why? Because we need to adapt the size of the sardine to the size of the tin. And then they fit the puzzle and they know exactly how much has to be inside to guarantee the full weight of the tin. (person speaking in Portuguese) – Sara is one of the control points of the several ones that we have throughout the process. She’s checking if the tin is completely filled, if there’s any tail inside or not. So today we are only doing sardines in olive oil. One line, one recipe, one day. The tins go out into a shower of refined olive oil. We do not use extra virgin because it has too much of a flavor and the flavor we want to enhance is the flavor of the fish. And then they go inside this machine here where we close the lids and we can only produce the sardines from May to November. So we have to produce as much as we can at this season because the remaining part that we’ll be selling will be from this stock. So for food safety regulations, and for our IFS certification, this is the most important step. This is the sterilization. The tins go in and they stay there for over 50 minutes. 1.5 bar of pressure, 112 degrees Celsius in order to eliminate any microorganism that is inside the tin. This is why we do not use gloves during the process and this is what allows us to have the best-before date of six years. After the sterilization, there is still some humidity on the tins. We have to guarantee that they are completely dry so they don’t oxidate. They also knock a tin on each one to make sure that there’s no water inside or there was a tin that was not properly filled. By the noise, they know if it’s a good tin or not. A tin that is going to be made today, it’s not going to be sold today or tomorrow. It’s going to be sold in 90 days. And this is where we age them. We store here, by the end of the season, four million tins. (lively music) This is the final step, the 12 steps. This is the wrapping. Everything here is done by hand. This is how we’ve always done it since 1920 and we do the hand wrapping because it’s like a Christmas gift. You wanna open it, you wanna hear the cellophane. From what we produce, 95% goes to export markets. So as you can see, they are wrapping NURI. This is the brand that we sell abroad and we are now selling in over 60 countries over the world. The number one market is actually Austria. That takes about 50% of what we export but then we send to the US, we sent to the Philippines. We have sold to Tibet. Sardines are a part of our culture. We have so many festivities where the typical product to eat is grilled sardine on top of a slice of bread. Other countries that don’t have that much access to fresh fish, they obviously value this canned fish that we do because it’s made with really fresh fish. What I love about sardines is that the first bite, you still have some texture and then you feel the olive oil or the tomato sauce that this is my favorite. You kind of breathe the sea when you’re also eating. So I think this is why eating a sardine is so great. (Patricia chuckling) (lively music)