Protein Partner provides sourcing expertise for specialty seafood products from around the world. Our quality seafood offerings include king and snow crab, shrimp, scallops, and many other fish and seafood items. These items are a delicious addition to any menu.
Common Seafood Terms
- Bled Out – Cutting an artery behind the gills while fish is still alive. This improves quality and shelf life of product.
- Blocks – Frozen Compressed slabs of fish fillets, usually without skin or bone. Good raw material fro breading or further processing
- Boned – All major bones removed but some pin bones may remain
- Boneless – All bones removed including pin bones
- Brine Frozen – Product is immersed in a salt and water brine during the freezing process protecting it from dehydration.
- Butterflied – A fish fillet or shrimp that has been split Candling – Process of placing fillets on a backlit translucent table to detect the presence of any parasites
- Catch Weight – Natural pieces of fillets are not exact weight and can range in size causing it to be a catch weight item versus exact weight
- Cello Pack – Fish Fillets which have been wrapped together in cellophane. Often referred to as by the count. A 1-3 count cello wrap cod means there are between 1 to 3 pieces per wrap. This would equate to an 8oz average per piece. The higher the count, the smaller the average fillet weighs.
- Clipper – Typically referring to Mahi, Sword or Tuna and means frozen at sea.
- Cluster or section – A form of crab which includes a group of legs and a claw still all attached to the shoulder.
- CN Label – Child Nutrition Label, meaning that the ingredient label has all the necessary information to satisfy dietary requirements for a school lunch or child feeding program
- Counts – Number of pieces per lb. i.e., 16/20 count meant that there are an average of 18 pieces per lb. The higher the count the smaller the individual pieces.
- Deep Skinned – Removing the skin and the fat layer underneath on oily species of fish in order to produce a milder flavor and better shelf life.
- Deveined – Remove the sand vein (intestine) from the tail section of a shrimp or lobster tail.
- Dressed – Whole Fish that are gutted, scaled and which the gills have been removed.
- Dry Pack – A process which can apply to almost any seafood meaning that no chemicals have been used in its processing
- FAS – Frozen at Sea Fillet – A portion of flesh taken from either side of the fish cut away clean from the central bones. Large bones, fins and belly flap are removed.
- Finger or Soldier Pack – A term used for layer pack shrimp meaning they are all hand packed side by side like little soldiers in a row.
- Fletch – A fillet cut from a large flatfish like Halibut and then further divided into boneless portions.
- Glazed – Indicates product has been Dipped in water After freezing. This ensures product will resist freezer burn but also adds weight to the finished product.
- Green Headless – Raw, Headless Shell On Shrimp. Does not indicate the color of the shrimp.
- HACCP – Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point. A food safety program requiring all parties involved in the manufacturing process of an item to document all control points where a possible hazard might exist to the wholesomeness of the product.
- H&G – Headed & Gutted
- IQF – Individually Quick Frozen
- J Cut – A fillet which has been cut to remove both the pin bones and the nape.
- Layer pack or Shatter pack – Frozen Fish Fillets are separated by sheets of plastic inside a master box. They may overlap and sometimes have to be dropped to break loose or shattered apart.
- Loins – Central Thick Part of a large fish fillet. These loins are typically cut into steaks and are typically from Tuna, Shark and Swordfish.
- Merus – The whole leg meat taken from a crab leg.
- Minced – Pieces of fish left over from filleting or trimming that are sieved to remove any bones. They are then further processed to make blocks, squares or sticks.
- Molting – The process where a shellfish will shed its shell to continue to grow.
- Nape – The front and thinnest part of a fillet around the belly.
- Net Weight – Weight of the product without packing material or glaze
- Ocean Run – A term which can refer to random weights and sizes. i.e., an Ocean Run crab cluster can vary in size. Usually packed aboard a processor vessel.
- One Cut – refers to a natural fish fillet which has been cut (usually diagonally) to reduce its size. A 24 oz natural fillet may be cut down once to produce two 12 oz fillets which are a more desirable or usable size.
- Pasteurized – To heat product sufficiently to kill most bacteria but not enough to cook the product.
- P&D – Peeled & Deveined
- Pin bones – A strip of small bones found along the midline of many fillets, can be removed by either J or V cutting the fillet
- Prawn – In the U.S. a term sometimes used to describe a large shrimp but is really the correct term for freshwater shrimp.
- PTO – Peeled, Tail On Shrimp
- PUD – Peeled Undeveined
- PUFI – Packed Under Federal Inspection
- Round – Whole Ungutted fish or shrimp that has been peeled but not split or deveined.
- Sashimi – #1 Japanese style raw fish cut into various forms
- Scrod – Size designation for Cod or Haddock meaning small. There is a misconception that this is actually a species of fish sometimes spelled Schrod.
- Snap N Eat – Crab Legs that have been scored through the shell so they can be easily cracked by hand.
- Steak – A cross section cut of a fish loin containing a section of the center bone. Typically refers to Shark, Swordfish and Tuna.
- STP – Sodium Tripoly Phosphate. Used on fish and shrimp to retain moisture.
- Surimi – Imitation Seafood products typically in the form of Logs, Flakes and Salad Style. Usually made from Pollock fillets using sugar and egg whites as a binder.
- Sushi – Japanese style raw Seafood- comes in several different forms including rolls and thinly sliced fillets.
- V-Cut – Similar to a J Cut which removes the pin bones but leaves most of the nape.
- Vein – Intestinal tract on the shrimp. Usually removed (Deveining) to improve appearance and texture.
- Yield -The useable percent of total weight from a fish or shellfish