Abstract: As the production of shelled aquatic products increases year by year, the traditional sales and manual processing mode (fresh sale, drunkenness and manual shelling) can no longer alleviate the contradiction of oversupply in the market. Automated deep processing of shelled aquatic products can improve the processing efficiency and ensure the health of workers and food safety, thus promoting the high-quality development of fisheries in China. Shell-meat separation technology is a prerequisite for deep processing of shelled aquatic products, and it is important to promote the development of deep processing equipment for shelled aquatic products. This paper reviews different methods of shell meat separation for shelled aquatic products, and classifies shell meat separation into pretreatment and shell removal technologies, analyzing and summa rising the research on several pretreatment technologies including heating and cooling pretreatment, enzyme pretreatment, ultra-high pressure pretreatment and combined pretreatment, and several shell removal technologies such as cutting, extrusion, centrifugation and high-pressure water jetting. In view of the deficiencies in the process of shell-meat separation of shelled aquatic products, it is proposed that large-scale processing equipment, automation and intelligence should be further developed and the research and development of shipboard processing equipment and crab deep processing should be strengthened. This review will provide ideas and references for further research on automatic processing equipment of shelled aquatic products.
2023, Vol. 38 
