Shrimp farming is not commonly associated with Switzerland, unlike the manufacture of chocolate and cheese. Yet, Rheinfelden, Switzerland is where Europe’s largest shrimp farm is located.
Michael Siragusa, a technical manager and co-founder of SwissShrimp AG in Rheinfelden, Switzerland.
In order to heat 16 large indoor pools and farm Pacific White Shrimp (Litopenaeus Vannamei) on a large scale, SwissShrimp AG utilizes the vast volume of waste heat which is generated by the nearby Swiss Salt Works in their brine evaporation process.
Michael Siragusa, a technical manager and co-founder of the company says, “Our production is completely transparent and we do not use antibiotics in our manufacturing process,” to summarize a key value proposition of the SwissShrimp brand and the premium shrimp they produce.
Also, we do not deep freeze our shrimp but send them to our customers in Switzerland within 24 hours in dedicated cooling boxes that we developed ourselves.
Michael Siragusa, Technical Manager and Co-Founder, SwissShrimp AG
Keeping quality standards that are so high is only possible due to the sophisticated purification of the seawater the shrimp are grown in. The total volume of 16 large indoor pools with a width of 5 meters, a length of 40 meters, and a depth of 60 cm each is purified 20 times each day by utilizing state of the art chemical, biological, and physical filters.
Using a fully automated ion chromatography system from Metrohm, Siragusa and his team measure about 15 ions in total. The main advantage of this solution is efficiency: Michael Siragusa says, “If we did the same measurements with a different method, e.g., by photometry, it would take the whole day to perform them, every day.”
Each day, the seawater of all of the eight water cycles of the facility is measured. Closely monitoring the toxic parameters is crucial, these are nitrite, ammonium, and nitrate. These substances have to be removed from the water and are a result of feeding the shrimp; threshold values cannot be exceeded. It is stressed by Michael Siragusa that he is extremely happy with his Metrohm IC system and the support he gets from Metrohm Switzerland and their application experts.
This information has been sourced, reviewed and adapted from materials provided by Metrohm AG.
For more information on this source, please visit Metrohm AG.