Video Scripts
Title: Seafood Quality
Length: 21:22
Florida is one of the most competitive and active seafood markets in the world. Florida serves a $15 billion restaurant industry and 75 million residents and visitors each year.
Hi, I’m Tom Thomas from the Florida Department of Agriculture.
The following guidelines will help you keep seafood at its highest quality. These guidelines will address how seafood spoils, quality evaluations and storage.
Before we get started here are a few questions for you to try and answer:
Number 1, how does seafood spoil?
Number 2, how do you stop seafood from spoiling?
Number 3, what is the proper temperature to store seafood?
Number 4, what is the proper temperature to store live shellfish?
Number 5, what is the proper temperature to store pasteurized, smoked and cured seafood?
Number 6, ice will keep products at what temperature?
Number 7, where should cooked and ready to eat products be stored in coolers?
And finally number 8, why is disinfecting so important?
And at the end of the video you will know the answer to these and more.
How Does Fresh Seafood Spoil
Spoilage bacteria multiply progressively faster as product temperatures rise; and quite rapidly over 40 degrees. As bacteria multiply, they produce microbial enzymes. It is the enzymes, not the bacteria, that cause the chemical breakdown of seafood. Simply put, as product temperatures rise, bacteria and enzyme loads increase and seafood spoilage accelerates.
The spoiling process starts when finfish and shellfish are caught, and it is completed in about two weeks unless something is done to slow it down. Pasteurization, freezing, and salting can slow the process down, but they will not stop it.
All fish and shellfish have bacteria on them when they are caught that can thrive at relatively low temperatures. They multiply slowest when products are held around 32 degrees Fahrenheit. That’s why it’s so important to use liberal amounts of ice on and around fresh products when they’re in storage.
Bacteria can derive the food and moisture it need from seafood, ice, dirty equipment, employee’s hands, and many other surfaces. That’s why sanitation and good employee hygiene are so important.
As a general rule, oily products like mackerel tend to spoil a lot faster than lean products like grouper and flounder.
Because it takes time to move products to market, it is important for restaurateurs and retailers to order prudent amounts of fresh products and keep them cold and clean from the time that they are delivered until the time they are sold.
Let’s recap what we’ve talked about.
Seafood products need to always be kept cold and clean.
On fresh products bacteria multiply slowest at 32 degrees Fahrenheit.
And multiply rapidly over 40 degrees.
If safe temperatures are not maintained, bacteria increases and spoilage accelerates.
When we come back we’ll evaluate some fresh and frozen products.
It’s not always easy to know when fresh product is at its best. The following demonstration will give you indicators to examine when purchasing fresh seafood.
Fresh seafood should have a chilled feeling and be about 32 degrees Fahrenheit. Use ice to quickly and efficiently chill the product down, and handle it as little as possible. It is more important to wash your hands than the seafood. Each time seafood is touched bacteria is introduced and cell structure is broken down, effecting taste and texture. If you feel like the seafood needs rinsing, do it, then quickly chill the product back down to the recommended temperature.
Lets take a look at whole fish.
When examining a whole fish for signs of freshness, we want to look at the skin and see that it’s shiny, and look like it’s just come out of the water. The scales should be tightly adhering.
Next we want to press the flesh. It should be resilient to the touch and return to its normal position after pressure has been applied. A good indication of freshness on a whole fish are the gills, they should be bright red or pink and free from mucus and slim and any off odors. The belly cavity of a fish, when its been drawn should be clean and shiny. And no browning around the edges or cuts or protruding bones. Next we’ll look at steaks and fillets.
Steaks and Fillets should have:
A translucent look to them; should almost be able to look down through the flesh. You should have a smooth surface and moist, but not sticky. There should be no browning around edges. And there be no gaps in the muscle tissue or signs of bruises or blood spots. When purchasing a fillet it should also never be bent in an unnatural position when you receive it, it should also have a mild ocean like aroma.
Next let’s look at fresh shrimp.
Our fresh shrimp should have no browning around the edges. The meat should be firm to the touch, and resilient. All of the legs should be intact. And the shrimp should have a mild ocean like odor.
OK, next let’s look at Live Blue Crab.
When purchasing live blue crab, they should be alive, and have plenty of leg movement. The crab should not have any breaks or cracks in the carapace or in any the edible leg segments or the claws. It should also have all of its legs intact. Store these at 41 degrees in the cooler, but we’ll talk more about that later. Crabs should also have mild ocean-like aroma.
Next let’s look at oysters and clams.
Oysters and clams are live mollusks so when you purchase them in this form, they should be alive. The best indication of that is if they are tightly closed. If you ever notice that they are open, a quick tap to the top and they should close tightly, that will indicate that they are alive. If they are not, they should be discarded. They should feel heavy, and there should be no cracks, or breaks in their shell. They should also have a mild ocean like aroma.
When handling fresh products, remember:
Ice will help keep fresh products at 32 degrees.
To maintain best quality, handle the products as little as possible.
And when you do handle, make sure to keep your hands clean.
All frozen product should be in clean, labeled and undamaged packaging, and stored at 0 degrees Fahrenheit or lower. For purpose of our demonstration I have removed all of these products from their original containers.
When looking at whole fish, steaks, fillets and shrimp, we want to look for uniform color in each of these products when there frozen. We want to examine for patches, white patches that would indicate dehydration. As you can see, the white cotton look indicating dehydration. We also want to make sure there are no off colors which would indicate rancidity. Like in this fillet right here. These products should also never be bent in an unnatural position when you purchase them frozen. That would indicate poor handling and an inferior product when it thaws out.
Spiny Lobsters can be purchased whole, cooked or green raw tails. When they are whole cooked, the whole lobster has been cooked and it will be a bright orange color and it should be free of cracks. The spiny lobster has no meat in the legs, so loss of legs on a spiny lobster won’t be an indication of quality. We have green tails here which means they have not been cooked, the meat where the head has been removed should be free of discoloration, and free of white patches indicating dehydration. The tail should be free of cracks, and in one solid piece. And it should be solidly frozen.
Blue crabs and golden crabs when frozen, are usually purchased in clusters. The crab has had the viscera and the gills removed and the top carapace taken off. What’s remaining is half the body segment with meat and an edible leg segment. The meat should be free of browning, free of cottony dehydration marks, and the edible leg segment should be whole and in good shape, and free from cracks.
That was quality evaluation for fresh and frozen product. Next we’ll look at receiving and product temperatures.
Now that we know what to look for in fresh and frozen product let’s talk about receiving.
When products are delivered to your workplace, have the receiving person check:
1. The cleanliness of delivery vehicles, and personnel.
2. Also check for proper temperatures and net weight of frozen products,
3. The condition of fresh product making sure there’s a sufficient amount of ice to cover it.
4. Make sure shell fish tags are on containers of live mollusks, oysters and clams.
5. Always check the integrity of frozen boxes. Are the corners crushed and are there water marks that would indicate the product has been thawed.
6. And make sure that cooked products is segregated from raw products.
These things should be checked quickly because valuable shelf life can be lost when products are allowed to warm up in the delivery area.
The best refrigeration temperatures for seafood are:
41 degrees Fahrenheit for live shellfish.
32 degrees Fahrenheit for fresh, pasteurized, smoked, salted products; and 0 degrees or lower for frozen products.
Even slightly higher temperatures can speed up the spoiling process.
When we come back we’ll look at ways to safely store your seafood.
Because of the many market forms seafood comes in it’s very important to store each properly. Let’s look at a few ways to store the different market forms.
Live mollusks, oysters and clams should be stored in the containers they come in and air cooled at around 41 degrees Fahrenheit. These products are still alive and lower temperatures, that we keep fresh at, around 32, could kill the product. You want to avoid direct contact with ice for live mollusk and never let them sit in melted ice water. Any dead animals when they’re gaping and open, should be discarded, because they can contaminate the live ones.
Fresh fillets and steaks, should be transferred if necessary from dirty delivery containers into a clean container with a lid, placed in a larger container and surrounded by ice. The ice surrounding the product will maintain the 32 degrees Fahrenheit temperature which is desirable for our fresh product.
Loins, any item that’s not covered by scales, skin or shell and is too large to fit in our fillet container, can be stored in ice as long as its wrapped properly first. If the exposed flesh comes into contact with the ice it will cause juices to drip out prematurely and accelerate dehydration.
When we’re looking at our whole fish they should be buried in a larger tote and completely covered with ice. If the fish has been drawn, and has an open belly cavity, they should be pressed down into the ice, so the ice and cold can get up into that cavity, because if it doesn’t, warming air pockets can occur, and it will accelerate the bacteria growth on the fish. Once the fish is packed good in ice, it’s good to apply more ice and make sure the whole fish is buried completely in the ice.
If you have the kind of walk-in cooler that has drains in the floor, totes with holes in the bottom are a desirable form. The holes will let the bacteria laden juice drip away from the seafood product, and then ice can be replaced back on top of it. And if you don’t have a cooler with drains where you can use this kind, this type of tote will be fine as long as excess melted ice is remover periodically.
And when storing fresh shrimp, they can actually be stored right on the ice. But the exposed meat is best protected if fresh shrimp are stored in a container with a lid in a larger container, surrounded by ice so that we maintain our 32 degrees Fahrenheit, which is desirable for our fresh product.
When storing fresh pasteurized shell fish meat, we want to have the containers buried into the ice. When the containers are going to be on display, bury them just far enough so the identifying labels are exposed.
Cooked and ready-to-eat seafoods, such as smoked fish, cooked shrimp and surimi products, should be stored on the top shelf in the cool room. This will prevent raw product juices from dripping onto it and causing a potential health problem. These products should be treated like fresh, and stored at close to 32 degrees as possible. Store frozen products at 0 degrees Fahrenheit, try to avoid refreezing thawed products because it considerably damages quality. Fresh seafood should be used within 24 to 30 hours after its purchase. If it will be longer than this before it will be used, it should be frozen right away or purchased frozen.
Thawing seafood in the package that it was originally frozen in will produce the best thawed product. Allow about 18 hours per pound for frozen seafood for complete thawing. Thawing unprotected seafood under cold running water will speed the thawing process, but it greatly reduce the quality of the product. The running water will cause the seafood to prematurely release moisture and break down the cell structure. The way to keep your fresh frozen product at its best is to allow it to thaw undisturbed in the refrigerator.
Once products are safely in cold storage, the task becomes keeping them in good shape until they are sold. Remember to:
Replenish ice as needed to prevent products from being exposed to air. Remove melted ice as often as necessary.
Keep cool room, freezer and display case doors closed when they are not being used to help maintain proper temperatures.
Minimize the time when products are out of cold storage. Take products out of the cool room and freezer as needed, not all at once.
Handle products as little as possible. Each time products are touched the risk of bacterial contamination is increased and cell structure is broken down which will affect quality.
Avoid stacking products to high in containers and display cases. Products in the middle of high piles warm up and dehydrate faster.
When we come back we’ll look at another way to keep your seafood products at their best Seafood must be protected from cross-contamination. Let’s look at ways to disinfect our work area. To disinfect means to cleanse of pathogenic microorganisms that can cause illness.
Utensils, cutting boards and other work surfaces can transfer bacteria through cross-contamination. Let’s make sure our work surface is clean and disinfected before work begins.
For nonporous materials such as knives, utensils, non-wood cutting board our solution will be one tablespoon of liquid chlorine to one gallon of water.
Our method is going to be to take our utensils, wash them thoroughly with soap and water. And then rinse the utensils. We want to put them in the solution and leave them there to soak for two minutes. After two minutes we’re going to remove the utensils from our solution, transfer them to a surface that has already been disinfected, and let them air dry. We don’t want to rinse them off again because we want to let the utensils have the full affect of the disinfectant.
For porous surfaces such as scrub pads, sponges and wood cutting boards, our disinfecting solution will be three tablespoons of liquid chlorine to one gallon of water.
Our method will be, once again to wash thoroughly with soap and water. After we’ve washed we want to rinse thoroughly. After the rinse we want to soak in our solution for two minutes. After two minutes in our solution, we’re going to remove our sponge and scrub pad and give it one more rinse. The porous surfaces need one more rinse to make sure there clean, then we’re going to let them dry on a surface that has already been disinfected. Remember, when working with any raw protein it’s important to disinfect the work area
When we come back we’re going to re-take that quiz that we did at the top of the show.
We’ve covered some very important points for maintaining seafood quality. Now let’s answer the questions that we asked earlier.
How does seafood spoil? Bacteria multiply at high temperature, causing enzymes to break down the seafood.
Number 2, how do you stop seafood from spoiling? Spoiling cannot be stopped, but proper temperatures can drastically reduce spoilage and increase shelf life.
Number 3, what is the proper temperature to store fresh seafood? 32 degrees Fahrenheit.
Number 4, what is the proper temperature to store live shell fish? 41 degrees Fahrenheit.
What is the proper temperature to store pasteurized, smoked and cured seafood? 32 degrees Fahrenheit.
Ice will keep products at what temperature? 32 degrees Fahrenheit.
Where should cooked and ready to eat products be stored in coolers? On top shelves.
8, why is disinfecting so important? To cleanse the work area of microorganisms that can cause illness.
Remember, good advertising will cause customers to try your products, but maintaining seafood quality will develop a loyal customer base and repeat business.
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