Common Questions

Home / Quality and freshness

If you want to buy seafood; always your eyes, hands and nose can guide you better thru your instinct. Good quality seafood has glossy – translucent by look, firm and elastic by touch and by smell – fresh ocean breeze.

A gentle press on the fish will not leave a dent; meat will come back to original state. Use all the fingers for gentle press; single finger will be hard on the fish.

Normally, Bivalves are kept in clean running seawater for removing the sand from the gut about 4 hours by the fishermen to make sure sand is removed from the intestine; otherwise you will be eating sand along with bivalves. Even at home bivalves can be allowed to stay in water with 3 per cent salt for about an hour to expel the salt.

Most frozen seafood are immediately processed and frozen at very low temperature (-40 celsius) at its peak freshness; frozen seafood when properly thawed quality is comparable to fish that was never frozen.

  • Frozen seafood should be free from frost,
  • Colour should look natural.
  • Frozen fish should be solidly frozen.
  • Avoid fish with white, dehydrated areas – this is sign of freezer burn.
  • Examine the package for ice crystals that may form around the inside of the package.
  • High quality frozen fish will have very little or no odour.

Place fish under cold running water in a leak proof plastic bag or submerge the seafood in cold water and change the water every 30 minutes until seafood has defrosted.

Fresh Seafood should be kept cool and moist. Maximum holding time vary according to species, temperature and intrinsic quality. Fresh fish in ice should be protected against meltwater by using drains.

Always store Seafood at the coolest part of refrigerator, don't store fresh seafood in freezer (ice formation in the freezer damages the tissue, seafood will lose its texture & flavour). Don't store fresh seafood more than two days in the fridge. Especially - oily fish should be consumed at earliest possible time. Clean the gut and remove inedible parts before storing for little longer period of time.

Bacteria are the most important cause of seafood spoilage. Millions of bacteria are present in the surface slime, on the gills, and in the gut of living seafood species. When seafood species die, bacteria, or the enzymes they produce, invade the flesh through the gills, along the blood vessels spoilage starts. Enzymes – help build tissue but, when seafood species dies, enzymes continue to function, breakdown the flesh, increase the spoilage. Removing the organs from the fish (gills, digestive tract, eggs) immediately after the fishing will delay the spoilage.

Ice is used in the fishing boats, transportation and storage. Fish spoilage starts right after the fishing. Ice keep the temperature low to reduce the activity of bacteria, fish enzymes and other microrganizms, which form the prime reason for fish spoilage. All the fishes should be kept in low temperature around 1 to 4 degree Celsius with slurry of ice cubes.

HACCP is an acronym for Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point. It’s an effective way of ensuring the safety of food. It works by preventing food safety problem s from developing rather than testing food after production to see if it is safe. There are 2 parts to HACCP
Part one- Making list of things that can cause the food to be unsafe (Hazard analysis).
Part two – Place in the production of the food the hazards can best be controlled (Critical control point)

The main consideration for deep-freezing is the rate at which the temperature of the food is reduced, when the freezing process is carried out rapidly, predominantly small ice crystals are formed; not affecting the cell structure securing the vitamins, nutrients and flavours. Our conventional refrigerators result in the slow freezing process, result in larger ice crystal formation. These can pierce the cell membrane and damage the tissue, resulting in drip loss of body fluid and tender meat lacking flavor.

Below -20 degree Celsius even for 2 years, One month recommend for home freezer with no much temperature fluctuations, six months for home deep freezers.
Note: Care should be taken to avoid temperature fluctuation, in India power cuts will have impact on the quality of the frozen seafood.

A Crab or Lobster needs to shed its shell in order to grow, New shell replaces the old ones, which is bigger than the old one, this process is molting. Newly molted crab has new shell around the body, it has less meat comparing to the size of the crab, Crab will hold water in the meat less space, till they grow new meat. If you happen to buy the crab during this time, Crab looks big, but after cooking there will be less meat comparing with the shell size. While buying you should check for meat than size of the crab

Discolourations is colour change in seafood from bright glossy to dull bleached colouration in the skin and meat with dried out edges.

Aquatic species are made of 65 per cent water in the body, when fish is exposed to direct cold storage temperature there is possibility of drying due to longevity of storage. Dryness in the meat affects the taste in the seafood taste.

Black spots and Black rings are enzymatic reaction starts right after it is dead. It starts in the shell, it doesn’t affect the taste, but affects the presentation of the dish as Black spots are more visible after the cooking process.

Comments

No comments available.
or to Post Comments

About Us

Mission Popularize seafood in Indian subcontinent through sharing various seafood information and experience through this platform and also integrate various fisheries related sectors to buy and sell using this comprehensive website specially made for the fisheries sector.
Vision To put India as top seafood consuming country in the world utilizing the rich aquatic resource in most sustainable way; as seafood is considered as most nutritive of all the available meat

Contact

Please call +91 75980 85985 (we are available 24/7) or write at sales@tropicalseafoods.com

SEAFOOD INDIA

No 4 35th street , Thillai Ganga Nagar
Nanganallur, Chennai - 61.

Subscribe Newsletter

facebook twitter gplus
INDIA SEAFOODSITE © 2024. Disclaimer
A Work of Webdrizzle