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Remaining at the Cutting Edge of the Seafood Industry
For some, “Frozen Seafood” has a negative connotation of being inferior to fresh. This is not always the case. Advancements in “Flash Freezing” technology have revolutionized frozen seafood as a high quality, convenient alternative to fresh. Here’s the science behind it:
Traditional Slow Freezing (-10° to -25° F) causes cells to rupture – negatively impacting flavor, taste, and texture.
In contrast with Nitrogen Flash Freezing (-160° F) maintains the integrity of the cell – maintaining the peak flavor and texture of the Seafood in its fresh state.
The key here is freezing seafood fast and at extremely low temperatures. North Coast flash freezes our seafood within hours or even minutes of harvest, locking in maximum freshness until the moment you’re ready to thaw and prepare it.
Okay, so what are the Benefits of Flash Frozen Seafood?
Having high quality seafood stocked up in your freezer is an excellent option to have available on a consistent basis for those times when fresh seafood is not an option.
Ozonated Water System
Sourcing the finest quality fish and shellfish is just one part of a multi-step process. Once we receive the highest grade seafood into our facilities, how do we continue to keep it clean, pristine, and delicious?
One of our primary tools for keeping our seafood pure and safe is Ozonated Water. In 1999, we installed an ozonated water system into our Boston Headquarters and then our New Bedford facility in 2004.
Here’s the Science Behind How It Works:
Ozone, or O^3, is elemental oxygen, which occurs naturally in our atmosphere. Ozone has been used for decades to purify water and food throughout North America. When exposed to oxygen and sprayed on a surface, it reverts from O^3 back to O^2 immediately and releases a tremendous amount of energy that obliterates any bacteria it encounters.
We produce ozone gas which is then injected into cold water and plumbed into each room for usage throughout our facility.
We use ozone water to rinse fish that come into our buildings and disinfect our work surfaces because it is an all-natural, efficient, non-additive method of disinfecting.
After receiving, inspecting, grading, and rinsing with ozonated water; we store our fish in large tubs of Slurry, which consists of salt water and ice flakes.
This allows us to maintain temperatures of slightly below 32.0 F, which does not actually freeze the fish but preserves its peak quality and condition until it can be cut into fillets, steaks, or portions.
Once harvested, our Oysters and Clams are:
This process 1) Naturally purges any sand, grit, or impurities, 2) Maintains peak flavor, texture, and freshness, and 3) Results in maximum product safety and shelf life.
Our Shellfish will continue to live naturally in our tanks, as they do in the wild, until we are ready to deliver the product to our customers. At this point, we will effectively re-harvest our oysters and clams from the ocean.
This approach is not required, rather, it is simply an additional layer of safety to guarantee the purest, cleanest, freshest shellfish possible.
North Coast has always used microbiological analysis to validate the quality and safety of our products. When our Boston Headquarters facility was designed in 1999, we built our own in-house laboratory.
The lab utilizes state of the art FDA and AOAC methodologies to perform a variety of analyses in real time. From shelf-life testing to fat analysis and a whole lot more, the lab is an integral part of North Coast Seafood's commitment to supplying only the freshest, safest and truly excellent fish and seafood to our valued customers.