Category: Educational

African octopus is the most in-demand octopus in the world. Japanese market is an eager buyer of frozen on-board and frozen at-land high quality octopus. Moroccan and Mauritanian octopus is dominant in the Japanese market, but buyers usually face the frequent price volatility. While octopus is in its shortage supply of materials worldwide and high price situation, Japanese buyers have to go looking for new sources to fill the gap.

The strong demand in Europe made it harder for Japanese buyers to secure products, especially European buyers snapped up the size preferred by the Japanese market (size T6), forcing the Japanese to bid on sizes T7 and T8, which in turn pushed up prices on these sizes. The competition of Japanese buyers for octopus’s supply is not only with European buyers/distributors but also with manufacturers who processed and exported to large market like the USA. These factors cause shortage in supply and most importantly consumer price to be too high, thus shrinking demand from final consumers.

Italians are well known for loving Vongole very much. Who has never eaten Spaghetti Alle Vongole in his life? You know what we mean.

A family company with 3 generations of seafood heritage and a modern processing factory in Central Italy, Esca is the Italian leader of high quality clams with pasta sauces which Italian families everyday use to replace the uncertain quality of canned clams.

They called it Condipresto, a name to represent the idea of cooking pasta on the side (Italians like to personalize their pasta, often ‘al dente’) and to use their sauce (in Italian: ‘condire’). An 8 minutes process, therefore ‘presto’ (fast).

20 years ago (oh yes, long time) Esca came to LP Foods asking us to set up the supply for them of Asian clams in shell and Asian clam meat for their Condipresto, but to guarantee the most strict quality standards: no chemicals, additives in production; no foreign corps of any kind, be it broken shells, or small crabs, or algae; no sand, even the slightest hint; no mud on the outer shell, black water drops, bad smell. It took years to improve the supply chain and to sensibilize the plants to the importance of delivering a premium product for a seafood traditionally seen as ‘poor’ due to the low unit cost.

What is Chem-free shrimp?

Chem-free shrimp refers to  products that did not undergo any treatment with moisture retention agents (MRAs).  There are two kinds of MRAs on the market: phosphate-based and phosphate-free. MRAs are typically added to protect shrimp from freezer burns and retain moisture. Many companies process shrimp with MRA agents as the added weight makes products heavier, which allows companies to sell at a lower price. 

Moisture control

Successful programs for the control of moisture in shrimp depend on the proper concentrations of phosphates for the best product performance and consumer preference. Exposure time and the related product temperatures are key factors in developing a process that provides product protection without compromising product taste, texture, or appearance. 

Ideally, buyers or processors should conduct studies with actual products and processing operations that include the opinions of the most important people in the value chain, consumers. The results will determine the best treatment specifications for their particular shrimp products. 

Many shrimp operations are ahead of the game, with outstanding treatment specifications already in practice. Some, however, stretch the use of additives as far as possible. These operations have divided the U.S. market into pro phosphate buyers and anti phosphate buyers. 

Target moisture level 

Buyers have a legal and moral responsibility to provide consumers with safe, top-quality shrimp. Product specifications that identify acceptable phosphate types, concentrations, exposure times and treatment temperatures are a proven approach for consistent and preferred quality. On the other hand, buyers who do not want any applications of phosphates or similar additives should specify they want no additives, including nonphosphate blends.