What a very interesting question you pose Steve.
I have attached below a copy of a section of the 'hot of the press'
Australian Quality Index Manual, that was written by Allan Bremner, the
respected seafood scientist. I think this will be useful to such a
debate as it raises the issue of what parameters do you measure products
against, to compare product A against product B, whether that be fresh
vs frozen or supplier X vs supplier Y. I have found Allan's
explainations of these issues to be very insightful.
Here at Sydney Fish Market we have found that it is not so much what the
technical 'freshness' of a product is that matters the most, but the
public's opinion and market research that our company has conducted has
shown that regardless of the technical merits of a frozen product the
public prefers product that is 'fresh never frozen'.
Regards,
Mark
------------------------------------------------------------------
Mark Boulter
Quality, Environment and Safety Manager
Sydney Fish Market Pty Ltd
Bank Street, Pyrmont NSW 2009
------------------------------------------------------------------
QI and Freshness and Quality
Freshness and quality are really marketing and consumer terms and have
no scientific and technical validity, unless they are very tightly
defined. Even then, disputes and confusion readily arise as both words
(quality and freshness) are used in many different contexts and the user
often slips between one context and the other, even within the one
sentence. They are very useful, common, everyday terms but their use
should be avoided in technical matters. Thus in assessing seafood, it is
far better to stick to objective descriptions and to evaluate discrete
properties and attributes (Bremner 2002).
"Quality Index" is therefore used here in the sense that it provides a
guide to the "quality" of the seafood when it is finally eaten. The term
is adopted because of the widespread acceptance and understanding of the
European Quality Index Method (QIM).
The Australian Seafood Standard states that "fresh" seafood refers to
product that has not been frozen, cooked, or preserved by any method
other than chilling. This meaning of the word as applied to seafood that
has not been frozen is common. Freshness is also often used in the
context of time elapsed since the fish was harvested but, strictly
speaking, the temperature must also be taken into account so that this
concept of freshness can be related to the number of icedays. Sometimes
fresh is also used in the context of meaning 'freshly thawed' for frozen
product that has just been thawed, or in the phrase 'freshly cooked' for
product just recently cooked, perhaps even from frozen and thawed
material.
The word quality can bring in several more concepts such as the end use
for the product, the workmanship involved in preparing it, whether it is
to be fried, baked or steamed for example, or whether it's colour is
more acceptable in the market place, as may happen with Atlantic Salmon.
These examples indicate the multiplicity of problems that occur with the
use of the words freshness and quality. It is much less controversial to
use descriptors of attributes and properties and the number of
equivalent icedays as indicators to evaluate the product and predict
remaining shelf life.
What is Shelf life?
There is no such thing as a set shelf life for any species of fish or
fish product; Shelf life varies according to circumstances and criteria
chosen to determine it. It depends entirely on who is using the
information and what the product is to be used for (Barbosa et al.
2002). The shelf-life of seafood to be consumed raw, is clearly shorter
than for that which is to be cooked, and different criteria apply.
Thus, the shelf-life of any seafood depends on limits that are
arbitrarily set. These limits may range from expert opinion, through
'rules of thumb' based on experience, or they may be set by rigorous
investigations of market and consumer opinion. A good indication of
shelf life is when the seller no longer wishes to have their name on the
product. As an example, in order to protect their brand name as a
supplier of top product, many traders sell poorer product under a
separate name, although it may still be quite fit for consumption.
________________________________
From: owner-seafood@ucdavis.edu [mailto:owner-seafood@ucdavis.edu] On
Behalf Of Steve_Lamming@youngsbluecrest.com
Sent: Wednesday, 11 April 2007 10:28 PM
To: seafood@ucdavis.edu
Subject: "Fresh" vs Frozen.
Hi all,
There are a lot of claims and counter-claims in the UK at present about
the relative merits of "fresh" fish vs frozen in terms of quality. Is
anyone aware of any objective research conducted on this topic, or do
any of you have a clear opinion or experience in the field?
(I know there will be some who say the you can't get fresher than frozen
at sea!)
Thanks and regards,
Steve
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