How are fish caught processed-canned frozen or manufactured into fish sticks?

Answer 1

Fish are either caught in bulk or grown in fish farms. Fish sticks and and their square cousins (found in McDonald's fish burgers) are produced on factory ships at sea or brought to processing plants.

The catch is sorted by hand. Desirable fish are segregated to be sold as "named " fish parts (e.g. sole fillets) Less desirable fish are reserved for further processing. Trash fish are dumped or combined with offal to become protein meal for animals.

Desirable fish are gutted and filleted either by machine or hand. The tasty parts are flash frozen and packaged.

In a similar plant some fish is put raw into cans. The cans are sealed and sent through a cooker. Sardines and smaller fish may be packed in oil. Anchovies are salted before canning.

The leftover bits that are not offal are combined with less desirable fish to be mechanically defleshed. The flesh particles are compressed into blocks and snap frozen (AKA flash frozen), then pass through a wire cutter which cuts them to the required size and shape, then they go through a crumbing machine and are boxed automatically.