Major bio-secure crayfish processing plant opens in UK

The Kennet Crayfish Company has created the largest processing facility for crayfish in Britain.

The site is eco-friendly, humane and uses pure, chalk-stream water to handle wild crayfish from the River Kennet.

Crayfish are smaller, freshwater cousins of lobsters and thought by many to have a superior flavour, much prized by top chefs and foodies around the world. Most crayfish currently sold in the UK are imported from fish farms in China.

The facility is the brainchild of local design engineer and crayfish specialist, Andrew Leech, managing director of the company.

Leech and the business wanted to provide the finest crayfish possible and create the largest crayfish processing plant.

“I think we have done both,” Leech said. “We have special licenses to process crayfish and to use water from the River Kennet. Our bio-secure facility enables stress-free processing of the crayfish to sell chilled or frozen, vastly improving quality of the final product.”

He added: “Signal Crayfish are an invasive species and new legislation, which strictly controls the handling and bans the sale of live signal crayfish, meant we had to raise considerable investment to upgrade the existing plant and develop new facilities. As a result, we have adapted and created a humane, ethical and environmentally friendly way of bringing this popular, world-class delicacy to people’s dinner tables.”

The plant’s storage tanks have a capacity of 3,000 kg of crayfish to be held while they are purged. There are then stress-free crayfish size-grading assemblies and a custom built, Environment Agency approved, unit where the crayfish are humanely processed. The facility also includes vacuum packing, chilling and freezer rooms.

The water used in the cleaning and processing of the crayfish is critical. The source used throughout the facility is from a spring a quarter of a mile away and filtered through reed beds before entering the building. Kennet crayfish are probably the cleanest in the UK and are better tasting due to the nutrients and calcium in the water. The River Kennet and its tributaries provide a rare combination of very clean water, high in nutrients and calcium found in chalk streams, of which there are only around 200 in the world.

Iggy Ilott sales and marketing director, says: “Prior to setting up the new company, Andrew was part of a co-operative that used to sell live crayfish from all over the UK. We soon discovered that chalk-stream crayfish, particularly those in the Kennet, are more energetic, healthier and physically cleaner. This gives them their superior, sweeter flavour. We expect the company will grow quickly through consumer sales on our website and wholesale to restaurants and specialist retailers, as well as innovative product development.”

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