technology may be just what the 

 industry needs to stabilize product 

 supplies and just what consumers need 

 to spur demand. 



But before processors rush to install 

 atmospheric cookers and cryogenic 

 freeze tunnels, they must get approval 

 for the alternative processing technique 

 from the N.C. Shellfish Sanitation 

 Branch. Shellfish Sanitation certifies 

 Tar Heel blue crab houses for sanita- 

 tion, facility design and worker 

 hygiene. They also monitor the safety 

 of the finished product. 



Because the highly perishable blue 

 crab is marketed as fully cooked and 

 ready-to-eat, Shellfish Sanitation has 



Despite an injection of 

 new technology and a 



fresh look at 

 old regulations, crab 

 processing is still 

 a labor-intensive industry. 



stringent regulations and guidelines 

 for processing the crustaceans. 



One such concern is for the 

 presence of a newly discovered 

 pathogen, Listeria monocytogenes. 

 Listeria is a common bacteria found in 

 nature that can cause serious illness or 

 even death if consumed by humans 

 susceptible to the infection. It's 

 frequently found on raw vegetables, 

 meats, fish and shellfish, including 

 crabs, but is killed during proper 

 cooking. 



However, processors must be 

 careful that workers do not reintro- 

 duce the bacteria to cooked crab 

 through improper hygiene or through 

 cross-contamination with raw product. 



If listeria is found in a tub of crab 

 meat, the state and federal health 

 authorities will force the recall of the 

 product from the market and may 

 close a crab processing plant to take 

 corrective action. During the peak of 

 season, such a closure would be 



Continued 



If you've ever cooked and 

 cleaned your own blue crabs, you 

 know three things. 



It takes a lot of work to clean 

 a crab. You don 't get much meat 

 for your effort. And you 're left 

 with a lot of waste. 



The same three principles 

 apply to the commercial process- 

 ing of blue crabs. 



Most crabs still must be 

 handpicked. The meat yield is 

 low, and you have a lot of shell 

 and cartilage left after the crab is 

 picked clean. 



There's not anything blue 

 crab processors can do about 

 handpicking or meat yields. But 

 processors are beginning to look 

 for alternative ways to use the 

 mountains of crab waste they 

 produce each year. 



Until recently, most proces- 

 sors buried their waste in 

 landfills. But fees for dumping 

 waste have risen, and the space 

 available for new landfills is 

 diminishing. 



As counties look for ways to 

 meet the state's requirement for 

 waste reduction, they quickly 

 look to those who dump large 

 quantities of refuse. In coastal 

 counties, their gaze often falls on 

 crab-picking houses. 



But they may have to look in 

 a different direction as crab 

 processors try new methods to 

 reduce their waste. 



Harold Stephenson of the 

 Washington Crab Co. is giving 

 his ground crab shells to an 

 organic farmer in Beaufort 

 County. The farmer is tilling the 



crabby byproduct into the soil to 

 fertilize the fields. 



To recoup a little money, 

 Stephenson also sells blue crab 

 back shells to deviled crab 

 processors. These processors 

 thoroughly clean the shells and 

 stuff them with deviled crab for 

 restaurants and supermarkets. 



Stephenson says he tried to 

 sell the ground crab scrap to 

 catfood producers, but the pay — 

 15 cents a pound — did not cover 

 his costs. 



Although Stephenson couldn 't 

 make a catfood connection, a 

 dehydration plant in Pamlico 

 County is selling dehydrated crab 

 meal to chicken feed producers in 

 the United States and to aquacul- 

 turefeed producers in Japan, says 

 David Green, Sea Grant's 

 seafood industry specialist. 



And in a project with the U.S. 

 Soil and Water Conservation 

 Service, Rich Novak, a Sea Grant 

 specialist on Roanoke Island, has 

 been working with a crab proces- 

 sor in Hyde County to compost 

 crab waste. 



Funded by the Albemarle- 

 Pamlico Estuarine Study, the 

 project will explore the feasibility 

 of crab composting in a three- 

 phase procedure that mixes the 

 crab scrap with pine bark and 

 shredded wood. 



The project team will also test 

 decomposition rates and the 

 effects, if any, this composting has 

 on the underlying groundwater. 



For more information about 

 composting crab waste, contact 

 Novak at 9191473-3937. □ 



COASTWA TCH 15 



