Cornish Canning Co - A Carbon Innovation Project

NEW WEBSITE LAUNCH - Don't worry if you missed the rewards and the first chance to order our canned Cornish shellfish on this Crowdfunder campaign, because we have just launched our online store where you 'can' pre-order your preferred dressings and we will notify you when we have validated each recipe - just click here to to view or visit CornishCanningCo.uk 

This project has already been 'part funded' by The Carbon Innovation Fund 2022, a partnership between the Co-op Foundation and Co-op...

There are several reasons we are evolving in to canned food manufacturing:

Firstly, while our members are gathering the 'low yield high value' Native Oysters they also harvest various other shellfish as bycatch, including Queen Scallops, wild and rope grown Mussels and invasive Pacific Oysters, all of which are a great source of food protein. However, hand gathering is very labour intensive and often only small yields, so larger markets are hard to supply.

Secondly, while at the many gatherings and festivals our founders find that so many of you "love the taste, but hate the hassle of opening/preparing shellfish", or “think they’re slimey (not if you chew them) ” !! Or in addition many share "fears of injury when opening oysters, or simply suffering from the inability to open them" and despite our members approved processing practices, many are worried about the "water quality where shellfish is harvested".

Finally, shellfish generally has a shelf life of 3-7 days when stored in perfect conditions. So, despite the ethical and traditional methods in harvesting, the lengthy and costly process of purification to remove any bacteria that 'may occasionally' be present, the care and attention given to handling live shellfish, we all absolutely hate it when volatile markets change or collapse and our finest shellfish just goes in the bin (Brexit wiped out some export routes, Covid closed many hospitality customers and news of sewage in our waters dramatically effected domestic web sales).

The Cornish Canning Co manufacturing process will: purify shellfish to kill bacteria, professionally open the shellfish so you don't have to, prepare them so no reason not to try, complimentary flavour lightly by cold smoking or with well known dressings and finally commercially sterilise all products for safe eating, more firmness  and longer shelf life - typically anything from 6 months to 5 years! 

As an added bonus for us and our unique habitat, we will retain the shell - which is made up of calcium carbonate, yes carbon sequestered from the atmosphere is stored in those shells, so it is really really important they are used to replace the substrate that is essential in future recruitment of shellfish species, its used in our hatchery and at our aquaculture research site when studying the larval settlement of native oysters.

Cornwall's first Canning Company since the 'Fish Canning Factory' in Mevagissey in the 1940's

The Cornish Canning Co was incorporated in 2022 following over a decade of planning and research by oysterman Chris 'Ranger'. Nowhere in the UK would process and manufacture his perishable shellfish, including oysters, mussels and queen scallops, so he presented his idea to The Co-op Foundation via the CIC he set up.

The Fal Fishery Cooperative CIC is a unique 'community interest company' that was incorporated in 2019, its aims are to "Develop concepts and projects that support, enhance and protect one of Cornwall's oldest and most iconic heritage food industries - Cornish Native 'Fal Oysters' are harvested by hand, sail & oar and have a UK Designation of Origin Protected Food Name - but while the CIC aims to protect the habitat and the species (see SavingESTER Pt1 & Pt2), we need to enhance our routes to market in a carbon free way, which in turn will support our heritage and our community, for centuries to come" says Ranger.

Ranger also explains, "The Cornish Canning Co is not a 'fishery related business' it is simply a 'food manufacturing business', the fact that some of its canned products will be perishable shellfish, doesn't make it a 'fishery related business'. In fact the 'Fal Fishery Cooperative CIC' has nothing directly to do with 'fishing', it started out to support all industries that rely on the heritage of the area known as the Fal Fishery".

So, where are we and why do we need to Crowdfund this project?

The CIC successfully applied to the 'Carbon Innovation Fund' and part of the application was to develop the Cornish Canning Co project. This included some small upgrades to an already '5 Hygiene Rated' kitchen - for product development, a solar and wind energy system - for carbon free processing and manufacturing, as well as a can seaming machine - for irregular 'sardine style' tins.

However, what we did not apply for was the further upgrades to the electrics in the kitchen, nor the minimum printed can run (that turned out not to be 1,000 but 27,000!), nor the batch label printer required - as the minimum printed can run meant we needed a generic can that we could uniquely label with each recipe according to food law. There was also one essential piece of equipment that could not be chosen, until full training and accreditation in the 'safe production of heat preserved foods' (completed in November 2022), which is a 'retort' for sterilisation and pasteurisation.

Cost of electrics upgrades circa £5,000, cost of cans circa £12,000, label printer circa £10,000 and costs for retorts range from anything between £10,000 to upwards of £5 million... of course we are not looking at the £5 million, just yet... but we think we have found an excellent company that will supply a new retort ...

Fortunately the Co-op Foundation have allowed us to 'temporarily' swap our fund allocation so we could order the printed cans, which when sold would replace the swapped funds... 

Then if pledges continue we will purchase the label printer, in the meantime we will just use an online sticker company, and finally we should be all set with revenue to repay the pot, able to employ staff and start a manufacturing business that will offer a service to preserve many other products from Cornish food producers.

Are you a pub, restaurant, shop, deli or any other business that would like to have your branding on our canned shellfish or have us can your produce? Please contact the project to discuss!

#ReduceFoodWaste 

#ReduceGHGEmmisions

#ReduceCarbonFootprint

#RecyclableMetalPackaging