C-Fishery Selecting and Serving Fresh and Frozen Seafood Safely
Fresh and frozen seafood is rich in protein and other key components, making it an important part of a balanced diet. In fact, a well-balanced diet that includes a range of fresh and frozen seafood can help with heart health and proper growth and development in children.
To minimize the danger of foodborne illness, caused by, it’s essential to select and serve frozen and fresh seafood correctly. If you follow these safe instructions for selecting and serving fresh and frozen seafood, you will be able to enjoy the great taste and nutrients of fresh and frozen seafood without risking your health, especially for your food business.
Buy Right
Fresh Fish and Shrimp
Buy fish that has been chilled or is placed on a thick layer of fresh not-melting ice, preferably in a case or under some type of cover. Fish should have bright, clear, and prominent eyes. There should be no discoloration and the skin should be bright and glossy. Scales should adhere closely to the skin, and the skin should not feel greasy. The odor should be fresh and light rather than “fishy.” Gills should be pink or bright red and slime-free.
Unless you are very certain that the “fresh” shrimp in the shop is indeed fresh-off-the-boat, frozen shrimp is a far better choice. Avoid shrimp that smell like ammonia or have mushy or slimy shells.
Selecting Shellfish Carefully
Do a smell test! Fresh shellfish should be odorless or have a slight “ocean” fragrance, but not fishy, sour, rotten, or ammonia-like. Clams, oysters, and mussels are alive in their shells, and the shells shut firmly when tapped. Gaping shells indicate that the clam is dead and unfit for consumption. Shucked oysters have a slight odor, a natural creamy appearance, and a transparent liquid or nectar.
Frozen Seafood
Frozen seafood can deteriorate if it thaws during shipping and is stored at warm temperatures for an extended period of time before cooking. The following pointers can assist you in making purchase decisions:
- Avoid purchasing frozen fish if the box is open, ripped, or crushed around the edges.
- Avoid packages with frost or ice crystals, which may indicate that the fish has been stored for an extended period of time or has been thawed and refrozen.
- Avoid packages in which the “frozen” fish flesh is soft. The fish should not be able to bend.
Serving Right: Freezing Process
The freezing process is not a method of preservation in and of itself. It’s simply a method of preparing seafood for storage at a suitably low temperature. Freezing must be done immediately in order to generate a good product.
One process for safeguarding product quality is to use IQF technology, which can significantly reduce ice formation on the product by freezing it quickly, resulting in much smaller ice crystals.
The products that use IQF technology maintain their original form without causing surface damage and have a longer shelf life. This is due to the fact that the product does not come into contact with much air in the IQF freezer.
Know Your Fresh and Frozen Seafood Supplier
If you want to buy the best quality of fresh and frozen seafood, you have to avoid sales from the back of a truck, since it is often difficult to know where these fish were caught, how they’ve been handled, or to return to the seller if questions arise.
As an approved, licensed supplier of fresh and frozen seafood that has been delivering tons of seafood products worldwide namely C-Fishery, we can guarantee that you only buy high-quality fresh and frozen seafood products of ours. C-fishery is an Indonesia-based supplier that specializes in fresh and frozen seafood from Indonesia that uses IQF technology because we honor each of our products as we honor our reputation. We have many kinds of seafood products as your reference. Contact us for further information. (Yustika)