Slave Labor Shrimp — Kudos to The Philadelphia Inquirer for its Dec. 15 story regarding how the cheap shrimp found in Walmart is brought to you by the hands of slaves.
Yes, the Red Lobster and Olive Garden restaurant chains are also mentioned as is upscale retailer Whole Foods. Frankly, we would presume guilt for any bag labeled “Product of Thailand.” Or China, for that matter.
The article describes how victims of human trafficking are trapped in jobs requiring them to work from 3 a.m. to 7 p.m. to work off usurious debt.
Just so we can have cheap seafood.
There are those calling for a boycott. Count us as having started. We are going to stick to Hill’s when we want something from the sea.
I stopped buying shrimp and all other fish not processed in the United States or Canada. I have been hearing horror reports on Asian farm-raised fish that are raised in cell-pool conditions. I’d much rather pay more and enjoy my meal.
I’m with you Bill Sr, Our best shrimp come out of the Gulf of Mexico aand are processed under strict supervision in state like Louisianna. Remember Jo Stafford singing Shrimp Boats Are Coming?”
Frozen At Sea – Frozen Fish Which Is Fresher Than Fresh Fish
There are fleets on the oceans whose fishing boats could be called little factories with good reason. Thanks to state-of-the-art equipments aboard these boats the daily catch is processed, deep-frozen and stored at a minimum temperature of -18°C already during the ongoing journey.
In the following we explain each step of the production process aboard:
After the catch the fish are brought aboard and killed straightaway. Immediately afterwards they are bled, de-headed and gutted before they are stored temporarily in buffer tanks.
From there the fish are sorted fully automatically and are processed into fillets by passing a trimming line where imperfections like blood spots, bruises or bones are detected by computer sensors and are removed manually.
The trimmed fillets are weighed and packed before they are cooled down to a minimum core temperature of -18°C, are frozen without water glaze and are labelled – all this maximally 4.5 hours after the catch. Each fishing boat imprints its respective encoded catching data on the labels in order to ensure the traceability of the product.
Until the landing the fish fillets are stored in the ship’s cold storage room at a minimum temperature of -18°C.
Later the fish fillets are shipped in reefer containers to us in Hamburg. During the journey, the cold chain is being maintained.
And this deep frozen product is supposed to be fresher than fresh fish? Yes, indeed! Thanks to quick processing and freezing aboard the deep frozen fish is only a few hours old after defrosting, whereas fresh fish has to go on a journey of up to 6 days from the fishing boat to the shop or restaurant. By the way, some fresh fish also needs to be frozen for at least 24 hours, as this ensures killing of parasites (tuna) or nematodes (herring).
Given the long transport and the necessary freezing of some fish our
„FAS“ products are indeed fresher than fresh fish!
I’ve been looking for Frozen At Sea (FAS) products in local supermarkets and haven’t been able to find any. Can anybody help?
The Red Lobster used to be one of my favorite seafood restaurants–I repeat used to be–no longer.
I went food shopping at the beautiful new Wegman’s in
Cordcord Township today 12/17/15–a beautiful store, but unfortunately they were selling shrimp processed in Thailand, where according to a couple Associated Press articles that appeared in the Philadelphia Inquirer they were processed by slaves as young or even younger than 16.
I immediately left the store. I won’t be back until they start selling American FAS material.
Where does Hill’s get their stuff? And are they from Thailand or China or India?