Fish descalers: A review

Removal of fish scale also called as descaling is considered as one of the most important unit operation during pre-processing of fish. Generally, the descaling of fish is performed in a manual operation. This is not only a time consuming operation but also frequently causes harm and wounds to the hands of persons involved in performing the task. Designing of fish de-scaler will pave way for reducing the human drudgery and also hygienic handling of fish. In this context an effort was made to review the information available on the broad topics such as existing fish descaling practices, types of fish scales, morphology of different types of fish scales, commercially available fish de-scalers, patents available etc. Publications describing such studies were obtained from all peer reviewed sources.