fat fish such as croaker, trout and 

 flounder can taste fresh after more 

 than a year of frozen storage. But with 

 fatty species, including bluefish, mul- 

 let and mackerel, rancidity is a problem 

 after two or three months. Some fish 

 common off northern states, notably 

 cod, hake and haddock, freeze poorly 

 because enzymes toughen the meat. 

 But for the most part, North 

 Carolina's common species — shellfish 

 included — could be frozen with ex- 

 cellent results, Lanier says. 



The technology is tested and ready 

 for quick-freezing seafoods. Modern 

 blast freezers, and equipment using 

 carbon dioxide and nitrogen gases, 

 can bring fish down to -20° F or even 

 -30° F in hours or minutes. Fleets from 

 Europe and Japan fish around the 

 world, processing and quick-freezing 

 seafoods aboard their ships. Fish han- 

 dled this way are frozen near their 

 peak, just hours out of the water. 



Lanier says that when Germany 

 first tried marketing fresh-frozen 

 products from their factory ships, 

 many consumers thought the fish 



Photo by J. Foster Scott 



tasted "too fresh," and wouldn't buy 

 them. This bias didn't last long. 

 (North Carolina's one experiment with 

 on-board processing and quick- 

 freezing has been a Wanchese boat 

 designed specifically for squid. The en- 

 terprise has been unable to find a 

 market for its product.) 



But even without these expensive 

 on-board freezers, the freshness clock 

 could be stopped at three or four days, 

 if fish were frozen dockside. Much of 

 Lanier's Sea Grant work has been 

 directed at solving the technical 

 problems such a practice might pose. 

 Studies by assistants on the project 

 found that fish gutted before cold 

 storage kept better than fish left 

 whole. Another study set some objec- 

 tive guidelines for measuring quality in 

 fresh and frozen seafoods. 



Much of the research has been con- 

 centrated on the seafood package it- 

 self. "A good freezing job involves not 

 only rapid freezing but also wrapping 

 in some sort of a package that provides 

 a good barrier to oxygen and moisture 



Continued on next page 



Fish landed on this bottom- fishing trawler may take up to 14 days to reach the dinner table 



