Shellfish Basics
Inspection of Fish & Shellfish
• Type 1 Inspection: Covers processing plants and their methods: PUFI mark given
• Type 2 Inspection: Covers labeling, weight, and packaging.
• Type 3 Inspection: Covers sanitary conditions only.
Grading of Fish & Shellfish
• Fish are graded on standards f or flavor and appearance.
• Grade A: Highest quality; no defects
• Grade B: Good quality
• Grade C: Fairly good quality
Structure of Shellfish
• No bone: Hard shells cover their bodies
• Two types: mollusks and crustaceans
• Composed of water, vitamins, minerals, protein, and fat.
Mollusks
• Univalves: Have a single shell
• Example: Conch
Bivalves
• Have two shells hinged together.
• Examples: oysters, clams, mussels, scallops
Cephalopods
• Have a thin internal shell and tentacles, or false legs, attached to the head
• Example: Octopus
Crustaceans
• Hard outer shell and jointed skeleton
• Examples: lobster, shrimp, crabs, crayfish (crawdads)
• Expensive due to the amount of work needed to produce a small amount of meat.
Types of Crab
• Blue crab: small 4-6 oz. crab from East Coast. Most frozen crabmeat comes from this type
Soft Shell
• A blue crab that has just molten or shed its shell.
• Its shell is soft so it is eaten as well as the meat.
Alaskan King Crab
• The largest crab: 6-20 lbs.
• Expensive, popular in restaurants because of the large chunks of meat.
Alaskan Snow Crab
• AKA spider crab.
• This is sometimes used as a less expensive sub for king crab.
Dungeness Crab
• Found along West Coast, they range from 11/2 -4 lbs. and have very sweet meat.
Stone Crab
• The claws of stone crab are popular in the southeast.
• To protect this species people fishing can only harvest one claw per stone crab.
• They twist off the claw and put the crab back in the water
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