APPENDIX III APPENDIX III 
frozen or with the meat removed (shucked) and sold fresh or 
frozen. Clams are baked, steamed in the shell, broiled on the 
half shell, fried or used in chowders, fritters, sauces, 
dips, salads, and canapes. 
Clams are sold packed in cans in large quantities as 
shown in the following table. 
TABLE 4 
U.S. Canned Clam Production by Type of Final Product 
py7i2 
Number 
of Standard 
Production plants cases Percent Pounds Percent Value Percent 
Whole 3 S}f 1/Sisl = 55,965 = $ 123,624 - 
Minced 13) 700,088 24 10,501,320 13 9,150,463 31 
Chowder 10 1,953,214 66 58,596,420 73 17,161,756 58 
Juice 9 208,212 7 6,246,360 8 827, 15a. 3 
Specialties 12 98,860 3 4,745,280 6 2,394,951 8 
Total 2,964,105 100 80,145,345 100 $29,657,945 100 
Surf clams are produced and sold as processed food pro- 
ducts. The final products are unique because they include 
only the muscle tissue and are not sold on the fresh market 
directly to the consumer. Before 1970 only the larger clams 
were acceptable due to manual processing in the industry. 
The development of automated shucking and eviscerating equip- 
ment and more efficient washing processes have made it tech- 
nologically possible to process smaller clams. 
After shucking, the clams are washed, taken to the pro- 
cessing plant where they are eviscerated, and washed again 
to remove any remaining foreign material. At this point the 
meat may be minced, chopped, or sliced into strips. It can 
then be canned, made into chowder or clam cakes, refriger- 
ated, or frozen and shipped to other processors of specialty 
products. The juices and wash water from this operation are 
sometimes packed as clam juice. 
Much of the surf clam industry is vertically integrated 
from harvesting through processing. Surf clam production 
plants are located along the Atlantic coast. Between 1965 
and 1974 the total number of shucking, processing, and can- 
ning plants increased from 37 to 48 with most of the increase 
accounted for by additional shucking plants. 
Most of the hard clams in New York and New Jersey are 
sold and consumed as shell stock. The few processing opera~ 
tions produce clam chowder, frozen clam broth, deviled clams, 
minced clams, and stuffed clams. The largest and least ex- 
pensive of the clams are marketed as "chowders." 
50 
