[WATCH] Tuna plant CEO: ‘I’m not saying residents are lying, but smell is not coming from here’

Foul smells that Birżebbuġa residents have lamented about are not being emitted by the tuna carcass processing factory at Ħal Far, a company official has insisted.

Charlon Gouder, CEO of Aquaculture Resources Ltd, told reporters on Wednesday that he was not contradicting residents but insisted the smell was not being emitted by the factory.

“I cannot deny what residents are smelling and complaining about, but what I can say is that everything is up to standard here, and odours are not being emitted from the plant,” he said after giving reporters a tour of the facility.

Residents and workers around Birżebbuġa, Bengħisa and Ħal Far have been complaining of a stench and sewage leaks. Residents have insisted the stench started once the plant started operating and are calling for its closure.

READ ALSO: Birżebbuġa residents ignored over stench, sewage discharge from tuna recycling plant - ADPD

The media were invited to tour the factory and witness the process by which tuna carcasses are reprocessed into fish meal and fish oil. Before the visit, MaltaToday wondered around the surrounding areas, and spoke with a few residents and workers in the area. They said the “unbearable” smell is coming from the factory’s vicinity, a smell this newspaper can confirm was present in the Għar Ħasan area.

“I smell it about three to four times a week, and it’s at its worst from 4am to 8am,” a resident told this newspaper. 

When the complaint was put to Gouder, he explained that the plant normally operates during evenings, denying the residents’ claims the odour was being emitted from the factory. 

The roof of the Ħal Far plant where the chimneys emit filtered air to prevent and minimise emission of odours (Photo: Karl Azzopardi/MaltaToday)

Journalists were given the opportunity to go to the roof area of the plant, where the chimneys are situated. While the MaltaToday reporter could smell a faint ‘fishy’ odour, it did not smell strong enough to be noticed from afar.

Gouder explained the different processes through which the tuna remains are passed. The first is the crushing of remains to separate oils from other biological material, followed by the cooking of that material to extract the final products (fish meal and fish oil) and the packaging of the final product. 

“Obviously, each process emits a different odour, and this is normal at every plant or factory in the world,” he said. “But using negative pressure, so as to not allow air inside the plant to escape, and the filtering of air through different processes, no odour is emitted,” he said.

The factory has different components at different sections to allow the extraction of air. ‘Room air’ which is the smell of tuna as it is being processed is passed through a filtering system of Ultra Violet light, ozone and carbon that is designed to remove the bacteria which causes the odour.

Gouder said that during the construction and planning of the plant, regulatory authorities like ERA had ensured standards are met. “I can assure you that should there have been any irregularity, they would have closed us down.”

He did concede that at the beginning of its operations, there might have been shortcomings from their end. “This is the only Blue Fin Tuna processing plant in the world, and so we had no playbook to work from.”

“I apologise to residents if there had been any inconvenience, but now the smell is not coming from here,” he said. 

Gouder insisted on the importance of such a plant. “Since we started operating, we have prevented 200 trips of around six to eight hours each for the remains to be dumped at sea, in line with the relevant permits. Around 3,000 tonnes of material would have been dumped,” Gouder said.

He added the industry was putting the circular economy into practice.

Around 500 tonnes of fish meal, and 600 tonnes of fish oil have already been processed since October. The two are crucial components for the creation of pet food.

READ ALSO: No animal part to waste: tuna ranchers join circular revolution