Equipment for the production of sprats in oil. How Russian sprats are made. Taste, color and smell

The composition of canned food "Sprats in oil" now usually includes small herring fish: sprat, herring, anchovy, White Sea and small Atlantic herring.

Why canned food is called sprats?

Initially, canned food was made exclusively from Baltic sprat, a small fish of the herring family. Then, for commercial reasons, businessmen began to roll other fish into jars too. Such a substitution did not affect the taste of the product much.

How are sprats prepared?

When preparing sprats, small fish are thoroughly washed, immersed briefly in a weak salt solution, then rinsed with fresh water, then strung on metal rods and placed in a smoking oven. Smoking is carried out at a temperature of 100-130°C for 30-40 minutes, at the end the temperature in the oven is lowered to 90-100°C.

How to determine the quality of canned food?

The size

One of the main features of high-quality sprats is the size of fish, the length of which should not exceed 11 cm.

Position in the bank

The fish should be approximately the same size, laid in even rows or "pigtail". In good canned food, they are literally “back to back”. Sprats have winter and summer styling depending on the time of the year when the fish was caught. In summer, when the fish lives in warm water, it moves less and accumulates fat - it is laid with its belly up, and in winter the fish is laid with its backs up.

Color

The color of sprats should be uniform from light golden to golden yellow. Those that are smoked for longer are darker in color.

Sprat appearance

The skin of the fish should be intact, with fine wrinkles, tightly adjacent to the muscle tissue; meat - boiled and juicy. Swelling of the skin occurs when the smoking temperature is too high, with insufficient smoking.

Smell

The smell of sprats should be pleasant, characteristic of this type of canned food. A clear smell of smoke indicates a violation of production

Jar

You can not purchase a jar that has signs of swelling, rust spots, dents, etc. You should also not buy canned food, in which you can hear a click when you press the lid and the bottom.

Why are sprats harmful?

Nutritionists do not recommend eating sprats daily, as Sprats in Oil is a very high-calorie product. In addition, smoking produces benzapyrene, a carcinogen that accumulates in the human body and can lead to the formation of malignant tumors. Having consumed 100 g of sprats, a person receives a dose of benzapyrene equal to that which enters the body after 4 cigarettes smoked.

Sprats have been known to many of us since Soviet times. Today, this delicacy has not lost its charm, but, on the contrary, has become even more rare. Only a few factories in Latvia have preserved the traditions of making real sprats. And we'll show you how they do it.

Three decades ago, every Soviet citizen considered it lucky to buy a few jars of sprats, so that there was something to surprise the guests during the feast. Today they are no longer an obligatory attribute of every holiday, giving way to other delicacies. Nevertheless, sprats in oil neatly packed in tins are still considered the queen of canned food in Russia. Today we will try to find out what kind of fish sprats are made from, what technology is used, and we will also visit a Latvian factory that has preserved Soviet traditions in the production of this delicacy.

Fish or canned food?

Even lovers of sprats cannot always answer a simple question: “What is a small fish or a kind of canned food?”. It turns out that it is both. Initially, Baltic sprats were placed in jars - a small fish no more than 10-12 cm long, living in the sea of the same name. But over time, natural reserves were depleted and under the name "Sprats" they began to sell calibrated sprat, Caspian sprat or herring. However, even today in a tin can you can see the same fish - some factories are jealous of the technology for preparing original canned food, carefully controlling what their sprats are made of.

Sprat production technology

Everything is pretty simple. First, the fish is caught and delivered to the factory. Then the raw material is washed in fresh water and cut. Clean fish are placed in pallets and sent to be smoked for some time. After that, it is placed in jars, filled with oil and sprinkled with spices, which are mainly used as salt and pepper. At the last stage, the jars are rolled up, labeled and put into boxes.

It is interesting

It turns out that the sale of sprats produced according to the original technology is prohibited in Russia. The reason is smoking, which leads to the formation of benzopyrene in fish meat, a carcinogen that increases the risk of cancer. In our country, habitual smoking has been replaced by the addition of so-called liquid smoke, which is completely safe for the human body. Most Latvian factories still use traditional smoking. Therefore, it is not easy for Russians to try real Riga sprats, although their health only benefits from this.

Brīvais Vilnis, located in the Latvian town of Salacgrīva, is considered one of the best factories for the production of real sprats. Canned food here is still made according to traditional technology, using real smoke for smoking and manual labor in sorting and stacking the fish.

Production of sprats with checking and sorting of raw materials. Several samples are taken from each batch and transferred to the laboratory, which gives a conclusion on the suitability of the fish for human consumption. If everything is in order with the fish, some goes for sorting, and some goes to a large freezer.

For sprats, only the best fish is selected, which has an attractive appearance (not wrinkled, without visible damage) and carcass sizes in the range of 11-13 centimeters. Some believe that it is because of the careful sizing that real sprats taste so good. Sorting is done by hand, as machines often damage delicate fish carcasses and are not able to select it with such accuracy as Latvian workers do.

The next step is stringing the fish. Small sprats and large sprats are strung on the same tables. When the master gives the command: “We string a large one!”, Work is carried out with large fish. If the master says: “We string small ones!”, The workers switch to small fish. Together, they cannot be combined, since the quality of smoking may suffer because of this.

Before getting into the smokehouse, the fish settles a little. This is necessary so that moisture and smoke from the glass can freely penetrate into the meat. By the way, alder sawdust is used to create smoke. In the process of smoking, the fish passes through a special tunnel, divided into 15 zones. Each of them creates special conditions for processing carcasses. The smoker is responsible for the microclimate, who monitors each of the sites. This is almost the most responsible position at the plant, since the taste of the product largely depends on the work of the master.

At the last stage of the production of sprats, smoked fish enters the packing shop. Here, instead of the usual machines, dozens of workers also work, who carefully put the carcasses in a jar. In recent years, the plant began to produce sprats in containers with transparent lids. So it is immediately clear that the manufacturer is not hacking, carefully controlling such, at first glance, unprincipled nuance as the quality of laying fish. Filled cans are rolled up, washed and dried with steam. After labeling, they are put into boxes and sent to the warehouse.

Sprats are the most interesting type of canned food in terms of production. In this area, traditions and their customers are honored. Let's hope that today's popular robotization and new technologies will not affect the production methods honed by several generations of craftsmen and technologists for a long time to come.

The Foodbay marketplace offers to familiarize yourself with the catalog of equipment for production.

Fish or canned food?

Sprat production technology

It is interesting

The Foodbay marketplace offers to familiarize yourself with the catalog of equipment for production.

In Soviet times, these canned fish were in short supply, and the lucky ones who managed to get them saved the treasured jar for the holiday and proudly put it on the table. Today we do not perceive sprats as a delicacy, although it would hardly occur to anyone to eat them every day. But if you really want to be nostalgic and treat yourself to sprats, then it would be nice to find out what the quality of this product is.

The undisputed leader in the production of sprats before and now was Latvia. Therefore, it is not surprising that all 7 test participants that we bought in stores are made in this Baltic state.

"Alax", "Helm", "Delicious Canned Food", "KAIJA", "Riga Gold", as well as two samples called "Old Riga" - one in a tin can, the other in a glass one.

All the results and conclusions presented in the article refer only to the studied samples.

The study was carried out for compliance with GOST 280-2009 “Canned smoked fish. Sprats in oil. The experts had to find out if the sprats contain harmful microorganisms, how much salt and carcinogen benzapyrene are in the fish, and also evaluate the organoleptic properties of canned food - taste, smell, texture, etc.

First of all, let us remind those who have forgotten or do not know at all what real sprats are. This is the Baltic sprat, which is called “sprat”. And it was it that in the old days was mainly used in the production of sprats in oil. Today, these canned food is made not only from the Baltic, but also from the North Sea and Black Sea sprat or herring, from the Caspian kilka and other fish, but not from any, but only from those whose length does not exceed 11 cm.

The technology for making sprats is generally simple: the fish is smoked, cut into carcasses, placed in jars and poured with vegetable oil (or a mixture of vegetable oils). Then the jar is hermetically sealed and sterilized at a temperature above 100 degrees.

The problem of benzapyrene

The classic way of cooking sprats is smoking on alder sawdust. Their smoke gives the product a special taste that distinguishes it from other canned fish. But you need to keep in mind that any smoke contains benzapyrene - a carcinogen that is unsafe for health. That is why nutritionists do not advise to get involved in smoked meats. With prolonged and excessive use of such products, cancer can occur. No wonder the concentration of benzapyrene in smoked meats is strictly regulated: according to Russian GOST, it should not be higher than 0.005 mg / kg.

It was this important indicator that the experts checked in the first place.

Fortunately, all test samples had benzapyrene levels below 0.001 mg/kg.

Benzopyrene is a chemical compound belonging to substances of the first hazard class. Formed during the combustion of hydrocarbon fuels. Benzopyrene is extremely toxic to humans, even in small concentrations, because it has the property of accumulating in the body. Can cause malignant tumors and have a mutagenic effect.

The main food sources of benzapyrene are cereals, oils, fats, smoked products. The latter include sausages, smoked lard, smoked products from poultry meat and offal; smoked fish, canned and preserved fish, etc. So you should not get carried away with smoked meats.

If we talk about sprats, then in itself this fish is very useful. 100 grams contains a third of the daily requirement of calcium and half of the daily requirement of vitamin E. It is known to slow down the aging process, strengthen the walls of blood vessels, and prevent the formation of blood clots. In addition, sprats contain a very important and rare microelement chromium, which is responsible for a stable level of glucose in the blood and prevents the development of diabetes.

Salt and oil are normal, fish is not

Everything was fine with the salt. According to the standard, it should be from 1% to 2.2% in canned fish. All test participants met the standard (see table). The least amount of salt is in sprats "Alax" (1%), and most of all in the samples "KAIJA" and "Rizhskoye Zoloto" (tin can) - 1.8%.

Diagram of the content of fish and oil in sprats And here, in terms of the ratio of fish and oil in jars, two samples did not fit into the requirements of the standard a little. According to GOST, canned sprats must contain at least 70% fish and at least 10% oil. Two manufacturers slightly under-added sprat to their products: for KAIJA this figure was 66.5%, for the Riga Gold sample - 68.4% (average value based on the results of measurements of three cans). Most of the fish was found in "Tasty Canned Food" (see diagram). The red line shows the limit of the minimum norm for keeping fish.

For canning sprats, vegetable oil is used, and not only sunflower, but also olive, rapeseed, mustard, and peanut. True, manufacturers do not always clearly indicate its type. Only on the labels of canned food "KAIJA" and "Old Riga" (in a glass jar) it is said that rapeseed oil was used. It is interesting that these samples did not comply with GOST in terms of organoleptic indicators. The rest were simply labeled "vegetable oil".

Everything is clear!

Now let's see what microbiological studies have shown. As stated in the laboratory conclusion, "all samples of canned food" Sprats in oil "submitted for research meet the requirements of industrial sterility of canned food group A according to the requirements of GOST 30425-97." This means that dangerous bacteria and microorganisms that can cause food poisoning have not been found anywhere.

Taste, color and smell

Safety is, of course, good, but I would like my favorite delicacy to be also tasty. GOST lists clear criteria by which experts evaluated the organoleptic properties of sprats. Here they are:

Taste: Pleasant, characteristic of this type of canned food, without foreign taste and bitterness. A bitter taste is possible.

Smell: Pleasant, characteristic of this type of canned food. There may be a noticeable smell of smoke.

Meat texture: Tender. Possibly dry.

Condition of fish and skin: Fish and skin intact. When carefully laid out from the jar, the fish should not break. There may be no more than 30% of fish in individual banks with partially slipped skin and a burst abdomen.

Skin color: Homogeneous. Golden yellow or dark golden. Heterogeneous is possible - from light golden to brown.

Oil condition: Transparent over water-protein sludge. Possibly: slight turbidity or "mesh"; insignificant presence of suspended particles.

Cutting characteristic: Head with gill covers removed by even straight cut; tail fins removed or clipped.

The order of laying the fish: Carcasses of fish are placed in jars with their bellies or backs to the lid of the jar in parallel or mutually intersecting rows, and in the row each fish in relation to the neighboring one is placed with the head part to the tail.

The presence of scales: Removed. There may be individual scales.

Presence of foreign matter: Not allowed.

Smoking is one of the oldest methods of food preservation, which has been used by mankind since time immemorial. Table salt in combination with wood smoke inhibits the growth of microflora and has a bactericidal effect.

So which sprats are better? Unfortunately, four out of seven test participants did not pass the rigorous “casting” of experts from an accredited laboratory. Sample "Helm" does not meet the requirements of GOST in taste: it is sour, not characteristic of this type of canned food. Sprats in oil "KAIJA" and "Old Riga" (in a glass jar), in addition to taste, did not meet the requirements of the standard for smell - it is also not typical for sprats in oil. And the Riga Gold canned food, in addition to taste and smell, also caused experts to complain about the consistency, which was rated as “weak” (that is, the fish fell apart when they were taken out of the can). Samples “Alax”, “Tasty Canned Food” and “Old Riga” in a tin can was recognized by experts as complying with GOST in all organoleptic indicators.

Well, to make it easier for you to choose delicious sprats in oil, RIPI also conducted a tasting, the results of which are given below.

Laying rules

GOST also imposes strict requirements on the methods of laying sprats in jars: either with their bellies or with their backs up, parallel to each other or across, but not side by side. By the way, the length of the fish in one jar should be approximately the same - the permissible deviation cannot be more than 2 cm. And one more interesting point. There is a difference between winter and summer laying of sprats. In summer, when it is warm, the fish moves little and fattens up, so the skin on its back can crack. For this reason, in the summer, sprats are placed in jars with their belly up, and in winter, when, as they say, there is no time for fat, on the contrary.

Test Conclusions

As laboratory tests have shown, the amount of the hazardous substance benzapyrene in all tested canned fish is normal.

Microbiological tests did not reveal any dangerous bacteria in any of the samples.

An organoleptic study found that sprats in "Shturval" oil do not meet the requirements of GOST in terms of taste; "KAIJA" and "Old Riga" (in a glass jar) - by taste and smell, and "Riga Gold" - by taste, smell and texture.

Samples “KAIJA” and “Rizhskoye zoloto” had slightly less fish in the jar than required by the standard: 66.5% and 68.4%, respectively, with a norm of at least 70%.

Comply with the requirements of GOST

Sprats in oil "Old Riga" (in a can)

Score: 4

Tasting results: Gray-brown sprats with a golden sheen. The skin is not elastic. The consistency of the fish itself is loose, mushy. But the taste is harmonious, with a taste of "cottage fire". Oil without foreign taste, typical for canned sprats.

Large sprats in oil "Delicious canned food"

Rating: 3.5

Tasting results: Appearance of sprats is unappetizing. The color is yellowish-gray, the backs are dark. The fish are mostly large. The taste is characteristic of sprats, but the taste is slightly burnt. The texture of the fish is tender, but slightly overcooked.

Sprats in Alax oil

Score: 3

Tasting results: Color of sprats is silvery, pale, unappetizing. The taste is atypical for these canned food, almost tasteless, the smoked flavor characteristic of sprats is practically not felt. The texture is soft but slightly overcooked. There is a lot of oil in the jar, it tastes unpleasant, with bitterness.

Does not meet the requirements of GOST

Sprats in oil "Riga Gold"

Score: 3

Results of laboratory assessment: does not meet the requirements of GOST in terms of taste, smell and texture.

Tasting results: The appearance of sprats is unappetizing, the surface seems to be with a veil. The color of the skin is soapy dull, gray-brown. The smell is not fresh. The fish has a rather pleasant taste of typical sprats, however, a little burnt. The consistency is tender, so that when laid out from the jar, the sprats fall apart. Oil with an extraneous taste, not characteristic of sprats.

Large sprats in oil "Shturval"

Score: 3

Laboratory evaluation results: does not meet the requirements of GOST in taste.

Tasting results: Large brown sprats. Consistency dense, elastic. When taken out, the fish does not fall apart into pieces. Sprats are quite salty, with a strong smoked flavor that interrupts the taste of fish. There is a strange non-fishy aftertaste. The oil in the jar is cloudy, dark yellow.

Sprats in oil «KAIJA»

Score: 3

Tasting results: The appearance of sprats is appetizing, the color is golden. The smell of smoked meats is too strong, because of such excess it is perceived as unusual for sprats. The taste of fish is salty and sour, “not sprat”. The taste of the oil is extremely unpleasant, it is bitter and has a foreign taste. The consistency of the fish is dense, even slightly harsh.

Sprats in oil "Old Riga" (in a glass jar)

Rating: 1

Results of the laboratory assessment: does not meet the requirements of GOST in terms of taste and smell.

Tasting results: Small, unusually golden fish, especially compared to other examples. However, tasters saw some strange repulsive spots on the surface of sprats (photo). The smell is chemical, not characteristic of canned fish. The taste of the fish is salty and sour, which is not typical for sprats. The same can be said about the aftertaste: it is unpleasant, with bitterness uncharacteristic of sprats. The fish is slightly dry in texture.

by the way

In 2008, a monument to sprats was erected in the city of Mamonovo, Kaliningrad Region. It is a large marble table on which an open jar of sprats flaunts. One of the fish is decorated with a crown. The monument, of course, appeared in Mamonovo not by chance. Fishing in these places is the most important industry, and sprats began to be smoked at a local cannery in 1948.

If you encounter a violation of your consumer rights, you can contact the SPROS portal for free and report a dangerous or low-quality product. To do this, click on the "Complain" button and fill out the form. Specialists will analyze the application, if necessary, conduct an examination, give advice, and also help to competently draw up an application to state bodies. And all this is completely free! Moreover, the employees of the SPROS website control how citizens' appeals pass through the authorities, and then publish the decisions made on the portal. Thus, the work of state structures is monitored.

In a huge workshop, women in blue caps string small fish on iron rods, as if now they are about to fry shish kebab from sprat. They do this trick a thousand times a shift, five thousand times a week, and their life bill goes into the millions. Residents of the small Latvian town of Salacgrīva have been working at the fish processing plant for dynasties, from a young age to retirement. Their hands smelled of fish like the hold of a fishing trawler, and their eyes, trained to fish for spoils, are as sharp as the eyes of an albatross. The salacgriva is tickled by the cold Baltic, the prickly sea wind blows, keeps the market in good shape. But women have jobs, and that's the main thing. A bit of the sea, soot and hard work in the Onliner.by report from the exemplary Latvian production of sprats.

In Salacgriva, the off-season is in mid-June, just at the time of our arrival, the company is finalizing the last days. Brīvais Vilnis is about to close for a big summer break. The last batches of fish are on the line. Process controller Henry Babris leads us to the dock. The sea had just played with the sun, and now it started to rain. It is unstable in the Baltic - it happens that it is very stormy here.

We are at the starting point of a large canning route. They do not catch fish on their own at the enterprise, they buy it from private traders. Fresh sprat and herring are supplied by small fishing companies - the fish lives in local waters. Herring, mackerel, sardinella and other "atlantic" are received in containers in frozen form from abroad.

- Classic sprats are made from sprats, Henry Babris says right away. — But you can also make from a small herring. By taste, however, they can be easily distinguished. The taste of sprats from winter and summer sprats, from fresh and frozen sprats differs. The best are winter, from a fresh catch.

At the "entrance" all raw materials are checked, samples are taken for the laboratory. If the fish is fresh, part goes to the shop for the sorting line, and part is frozen at a temperature of minus 18 degrees. So it can be stored up to 9 months.

Sprats are thawed in defrosting chambers - the temperature rises to plus 10 degrees.

The next step, and one of the most important, is sorting. Almost perfect fish is selected for sprats. Whole, not dented, without damage. Suitable carcasses measuring 11-13 centimeters.

Our guide makes a small digression. What is it all about - Riga sprats? In the mid-1990s, an association of the same name was created in Latvia, which united the largest fish processing enterprises in the country. The Association is the holder of the collective trademark "Riga sprats in oil" and controls the quality of products. The requirements for it are extremely stringent. That is why sorting is carried out exclusively by hand - so as not to damage the fish. There have been attempts to automate the process. But the efficiency of women's hands turned out to be higher than that of a mechanical "robot".

Workers do not have time to look around and pose for the photographer. In front of them is a fish in a pan. A lot of fish. The master gives the command: "We string the little one!" And they string, putting a large one in a separate box, since it is impossible to smoke sprats of different sizes at the same time. Soon the master will shout: "We string a large one!" And so on throughout the shift.

This is not an easy process. We are told that at any time the worker can get up and rest. Each is given a certain number of pans. Fill it all out and you'll get a token. The more tokens per day, the higher the salary. The one who gives a lot of marriage can be de-bonded. Only the most experienced work on sorting raw materials for the elite products of the plant - "Royal Sprats".

The strung fish is already ready for smoking. Although not quite. Workers leave it for a while so that the glass is damp. The sprat needs to be moved apart so that the fish do not stick together. When smoked, this can lead to marriage.

Preparing the mixture for smoking - we will have smoke from alder.

The fish moves through the tunnels, where they go through various stages of smoking - about 15 steps. Smoke is prepared here, steam is supplied there. The smoker regulates the flow of the mixture and the temperature in each zone. Keeps track of moisture levels. The workers are all experienced, mostly men. The quality of the product that the buyer purchases in the store largely depends on their skills.

Before us is an almost finished semi-finished product - smoked sprat of a characteristic golden color. Then the heads of the fish will be cut off, and the carcasses will be sent for cooling. The heads will be sold as recyclables.

Laying. Already during smoking, the master will determine which raw materials will be used for Riga sprats, and which for simple ones. Or, for example, on a pate. Or maybe a sprat in a tomato.

Each worker on the stack has a scale. Sprats try to lay beautifully, figured. To look aesthetically pleasing and presentable. Henry says:

- By opening the jar, you can determine whether the manufacturer cheated or not. If the fish is laid with their bellies up, this is a good sign. After all, if the raw material is of poor quality or it was badly smoked, then they usually put it back up. The bellies are opened first, the "hacks" need to hide it. It is also important whether there is damage in the first row. By our standards, they shouldn't be.

And here the work is normalized - by the number of cans.

— We have people who work as families, the interlocutor continues. — There are practically no places in the vicinity where middle-aged women can get a job. But even in such a situation, it is not possible to recruit another shift of workers. However, we do not need volume, but quality.

Some kind of spell! In general, it seems to us that this is extreme idealism - to put fish in a jar at a price of € 1, as if it were not golden, but golden. Moreover, under a tin lid, all the efforts of workers from Salacgrīva cannot be seen by a potential buyer. The plant understood this a long time ago. Workers say it has become impossible to compete with manufacturers who throw crumpled semi-finished products into their cans and dump them:

- Both in Russia, and in Ukraine, and in Belarus, they are trying to make sprats from damaged fish. As a result, consumer confidence in the product is lost. We went the other way.

A few years ago, know-how was introduced here - jars with a transparent lid. Now the buyer will see exactly what they want to sell to him. No more jar secrets. Behind the "honest" packaging, albeit more expensive, they believe here is the canning future.

Various variations of sprat in tomato. Tomato sauce at the enterprise is brewed by ourselves, without using cheap powder substitutes. It turns out expensive. The cost of a high-quality thick sauce is almost the same as the cost of fish.

There is no point in saving. An interesting thing: in Ukraine, our sprat in tomato is five times more expensive than the local one, but they buy it perfectly. So people are willing to pay for quality, Henry says.

And we're back to sprats. The banks are already closed. They are washed and then sent to autoclaves for sterilization.

- We do not add any preservatives and antioxidants: there is no need. The product is sterilized completely, the jars are sealed. Each type of canned food has its own sterilization formula. Thus, a 2-3-year shelf life is achieved.

Most of the equipment at the enterprise is still Soviet-made. It does not look very presentable, it does not smell like perfume. The equipment is regularly repaired and maintained in good condition. Some of them were bought with European money. It's strange: they look at modernization here a little differently than in Belarus. It turns out that the point is not in new lines for millions, which are so nice to get on the account. The essence, we are told, is in ideas and innovations - that's how it is in the same transparent package.

- No matter how hard they try in the same Kaliningrad, they cannot get the same high quality. Even on the new ultra-modern equipment. Our smokers have decades of experience, and the bosses do not shout from above: give us the cost, Here is Henry's opinion.

After sterilization, the jars are washed again, dried with steam and sent for pasting with a label. Everything can be loaded into the warehouse and sent with an opportunity to the counter.

- In fact, little has changed in production technology since Soviet times, the controller says. — Unless then they looked not where you can save money, but where to steal. Now all employees of the enterprise understand perfectly well: we will survive only due to high-quality work. Let's give way to competitors - we'll die. Nobody will help us.

Chairman of the Board of Brīvais Vilnis Arnolds Babris tells how the company manages to stay afloat.

— It was a difficult period. The banker gave money - start-up capital. We talked with the team, chose a niche - to provide the highest quality on the market. And they started to work. We optimized what we could to the maximum. In 2004, everyone was chasing the price, and we decided to take on the topic of exclusivity, an expensive segment. They began to produce "Royal sprats". The first began to work with plastic. The tear-off lid is also our invention. And there are many such innovations.

In 2006, either from the foam of the sea, or from a secret Baltic depression, a water one appeared. His name was Onishchenko, and he loved to find in things what was hidden. In the Latvian sprats, the chief supervisory officer of the Russian Federation found benzapyrene - and banned the supply of products to the Russian market.

Here in this very office, Arnold Babris shows us, he put Onishchenko in his place.

- Immediately after the accusations were made, I ordered the products of Russian manufacturers and sent them to Germany for control. It was a terrible picture. I called the TV people, I show: look, where is this benzapyrene. Show Onishchenko to know. For several years, deliveries to the Russian Federation stopped. But the plant was built according to such a model that at any moment we can “close” any country without loss by moving to another market. A contract has now been signed with China - a minimum monthly shipment worth at least €250,000. And we won't be lost without Russia.

Traditional weekly tasting: managers and employees evaluate the quality of the products produced. In addition to sprats, these are several dozen types of various canned food

Surviving after a heavy tasting is not easy. This food is definitely not healthy.

What about Belarus? At one time, Brivais Vilnis supplied about 12% of the total production to Belarus. After the crash of 2011, the numbers were not so pleasant.

— I must be sure that in return for the product I will receive money without delay. Everything is simple. The level of profitability for canned food is 5% of turnover. Only! We can't afford to risk Arnold Babris says

Finally, we are interested in the leader: is he sure that in the age of healthy eating, people will continue to eat canned food?

- They will. But the question is volume. Sprats have always been a delicacy. This is by no means consumer goods, not a product for every day. In Soviet times, there was a GOST, and all sprats were good. Then the image of the product was undermined. During the perestroika period, sprats became a commodity. “Do you give sprats? Yes! What price?" And off we go. Due to the decrease in quality and price, the product has become virtually inedible. A person opens a can, looks, throws it away - this is what the market glut has led to. I can say for sure that sprats will not disappear anywhere. But the market will shrink. I believe that only those who produce a quality product will remain.

Having worked hard enough, Salacgriva is resting. The fish factory is a city-forming enterprise. 450 people are employed here. If the plant falls down, the town will immediately collapse. And he doesn't get fat either. Due to the abundance of manual labor, a third of the cost of a tin can is the salary of workers. A good stacker earns an average of €300. And this is the highest salary in the industry. People want more. But for now, it's the ceiling. Nobody said that the market is easy.

There is, of course, an important detail here. Whatever storm hits, a niche plant is unlikely to lose ground. Here they learned to live within their means and count every penny. Without any government support, they will somehow survive.