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Seafood is one of the most complex and misunderstood foods in the world. There are seemingly endless varieties of fish and shellfish available to enjoy. Many seafood lovers, who would not hesitate to order salmon, shrimp, or scallops at a restaurant, do not prepare seafood in their home kitchen because they are not sure how to cook it.
After 60+ years in the seafood industry, there is a common set of questions that we at North Coast Seafoods hear time and time again. So we’ve broken down the most frequently asked questions about seafood. Seafood Wholesalers California
Jump to Specific Questions:
Studies have shown that eating seafood twice a week helps reduce the risk of dying from heart disease by 36%! Talk about heart-healthy food!
Eating 2-3 servings (at least 8 ounces) of fish and shellfish each week, as recommended by the USDA, has been linked to the following possible benefits:
Every five years, the USDA revises their Dietary Guidelines and each time seafood gets a bigger shout out for being a nutritional powerhouse. This recommendation was reinforced in the 2020-2025 Dietary Guidelines for Americans and is also supported by the American Heart Association (AHA). View them here.
Does it matter how your fish is caught? Actually, both Wild Caught and Farmed seafood can be high-quality, sustainable, and delicious choices. And both are essential to ensuring continued seafood availability for future generations.
When purchasing both wild caught and farmed seafood, it is important to check that the product is Certified Sustainable to ensure that it has been produced according to responsible standards. Look for the MSC logo on wild caught seafood and the ASC or BAP logos on farm raised seafood.
This is probably the question we get most often and a question that has an incredibly intricate, multi-dimensional answer. BOTH fresh and frozen can be excellent options, depending on a variety of factors.
Advancements in "Flash Freezing " technology have revolutionized frozen seafood, making it possible to retain its natural freshness, nutrients, texture, and flavor without compromising quality.
Fresh doesn’t inherently equate to superior quality, just like frozen doesn't always mean inferior quality. There is a lot that can happen between time of catch, the time you are purchasing at the store level, and the time you are finally cooking.
When buying fresh seafood, it is important to purchase from a trusted supplier or retailer and evaluate quality based on the specifications laid out below. North Coast Seafoods is proud to offer premium quality seafood, available directly from the source, and delivered to your door.
Browse our online shop to learn more about our fresh and frozen offerings.
Can pregnant women eat seafood? How about breastfeeding women?
The answer is yes, and they are encouraged to eat fish and seafood as part of a healthy balanced diet!
Studies have actually shown that children gain an average of 7.7 full IQ points when their moms ate seafood during pregnancy compared to moms that did not eat seafood.
Most definitely! The nutrition that a proper seafood diet provides is influential in a child's physical and developmental health, the FDA and EPA support .
Read more about our Sea to Schools lunch program, right here.
By definition, the raising of aquatic organisms from juvenile through adult stage under carefully controlled conditions.
It is important to remember that just like farm-raised chicken - there are good farms and bad farms. North Coast Seafoods is committed to sourcing only from Certified Sustainable operations through our partnerships with the Best Aquaculture Practices (BAP) and the Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) to ensure the highest quality process and end product.
Seafood is a nutrient dense food and an excellent source of protein, often with fewer calories and saturated fats as compared to other center of the plate proteins. See the figures below for a comparison to other center of the plate proteins, based on a 4-ounce raw portion.
Statistics pulled from the USDA Nutrient Database.
Check out our Seafood Nutrition blog series, written by our in-house Registered Dietitian. Learn more here!
Check out our blog posts of Seafood Sustainability, learn more right here!
Before diving into the particulars of overfishing, stocking density, and other important aspects of seafood sustainability, let's zoom out and focus on the big picture: virtually all forms of seafood contribute less to global warming and environmental degradation than beef and pork.
Research has shown that seafood is the most carbon-efficient source of protein on the planet. Seafood requires no land or additional water resources to harvest and even has a lower impact on wildlife compared to land-based proteins. Compared to protein sources harvested on land, seafood production produces much fewer greenhouse gas emissions and less freshwater pollution.
If you want to help the planet with a no-brainer, totally uncomplicated dietary modification, swap out that pork chop or T-bone for just about any type of seafood.
That said, some seafood is exceptionally sustainable - mollusks, wild fish from well-managed fisheries, and herbivorous farmed fish like tilapia raised without chemical or antibiotic use are good examples.
Simply put - sustainable seafood means seafood that is caught, farmed, or harvested using environmentally harmonious and socially responsible methods that does not jeopardize long term ocean health or stability of the species in question. Sustainability is crucial to ensure continued availability of seafood for future generations.
Both wild and farmed seafood can be sustainable. With seafood consumption rising worldwide, well-managed ocean-raised (farmed) fish can take pressure off wild fish populations and wild fisheries, where 90% of wild fish stocks are harvested at full capacity.
For Wild Caught Seafood , sustainability means the populations are well-managed and not overfished, and the fishing method has minimal impact on habitat and other wildlife (limiting bycatch and minimizing damage to marine habitats).
Sustainable fisheries in the US, Canada, and Europe are well-managed by government authorities. So, for New Englanders, local fish is reliably sustainable, as overexploited local stocks of certain types of seafood such as cod aren't open to commercial fishing.
For Aquaculture, sustainability means minimizing impacts to the environment by limiting habitat damage, pollution, escapes of farmed fish and using sustainable feed ingredients.
Contrary to popular belief, not all farmed salmon, for instance, is raised in pens stocked so tightly that their living conditions are dirty. In Norway, where some of the world's best salmon is raised, pens are sparsely stocked, so the fish have plenty of room to swim around; the tides flowing in and out of Norwegian fjords are vigorous, washing huge quantities of perfectly clean water through the pens every day.