Photo by Steven Wilson 



Swift sells his vacuum-packed frozen fish in boxes like these 



Freezing seafood in your home 



he processes frozen, in one-pound 

 packages for consumers to thaw at 

 home or transfer to their freezers for 

 storage. The special fish film, made of 

 a combination of nylon, polyester and 

 syrlene, extends the shelf life of his 

 frozen product and eliminates 

 dehydration. 



Swift spent two-and-a-half years 

 developing his vacuum-packing 

 techniques and now he's putting them 

 to use. Swift markets a line of gourmet 

 frozen seafoods under the name 

 Tropical Seas. The line includes 

 scallops and swordfish, at about $3.99 

 to $7.99 a pound. A lower-priced line 

 offers such products as black bass and 

 red snapper. The Kroger supermarket 

 chain in New York City is buying 

 Swift's seafood. He processes 10,000 

 pounds of fish a day in his Charleston 

 plant, he says. 



Swift says he has learned good 

 marketing can go a long way toward 

 getting his frozen seafood from the 

 frozen-food counter into the shopper's 

 grocery cart. He's hired a Madison 

 Avenue firm to tell him who's buying 

 fish, how to target those consumers 

 and how to persuade them to buy his 

 fish. 



Swift says that of every dollar spent 

 on food in the U.S., 83 cents are spent 

 in chain stores. People are eating in 

 restaurants less often and preparing 

 more of their food at home, he says. 

 With that in mind, Swift chose to 

 knock on the doors of supermarket 

 chain-store buyers to sell his product 

 rather than restaurants or independent 

 grocery stores. 



Through the marketing research, 

 Swift has learned that people who buy 

 fish tend to be more health-conscious 

 in selecting their food. He has aimed 

 his advertising slogan — "Fish — Put 

 Your Diet in the 80s" — at that group. 



Besides knowing his market, Swift is 

 using some slick advertising techni- 

 ques to get the public to try his frozen 

 fish. In marketing his frozen golden 

 tilefish, Swift alludes to French cuisine. 

 In one of his ads, a picture shows an 

 elegant place-setting and a plate of tile- 

 fish covered in a creamy sauce. Below 

 the picture are the words: "The 

 French call it elegant fish." 



"To change people's opinion you can 

 use two methods, sanctions or 

 rewards," Swift says. "In this case we 

 used sanctions by alluding to the 

 authority of French cooking." 



—Kathy Hart 



Blast freezers and carbon dioxide 

 tunnels aren't standard equipment in 

 American homes. So the home freezer 

 may be called on to freeze those 15 

 pounds of flounder you brought home 

 from your last fishing trip. The key to 

 good home-frozen fish, like the key to 

 good commercially frozen fish, is to 

 start with a fresh fish, one that has 

 been properly handled from the 

 minute it was taken off the line. 



Joyce Taylor, a marine advisory 

 agent at UNC Sea Grant's NCSU 

 Seafood Laboratory in Morehead City, 

 says fish you want to freeze should be 

 coated with a glaze to guard against 

 freezer burn and oxidation. Freezer 

 burn changes the texture of the fish, 

 and oxidation, the interaction of ox- 

 ygen with fish fats, can cause bad 

 odors and flavors. 



To prepare the glaze: 



— Measure l A cup of lemon juice into 

 a pint container. Fill the rest of the 

 container with water. 



— Dissolve one packet of unflavored 

 gelatin in Vi cup of the lemon juice- 

 water mixture. 



— Heat the remaining liquid to boil- 

 ing. 



— Stir the dissolved gelatin mixture 

 into the boiling liquid. 



— Cool the mixture to room tem- 

 perature. 



Dip the fish into the glaze and drain 

 it for several seconds. (The glaze will 

 be enough for about a dozen medium- 

 size fillets.) 



Wrap the fish in a saran-type wrap, 

 label and date the package and place it 

 in the coldest part of your freezer. 

 Taylor suggests freezing seafood in 

 small portions so it will freeze faster 

 with less deterioration. 



Lean fish such as flounder, snapper 

 and trout can be safely stored in the 

 freezer three to six months. Fatty fish 

 such as bluefish, mackerel and mullet 

 should not be stored for more than 

 three months. 



Taylor says shrimp are best frozen 

 in their shells in strong plastic bags. 

 Scallops should be shucked and frozen 

 in air-tight containers. Clams and 

 oysters are best frozen in their shells, 

 which makes for easy shucking and no 

 loss of juices; but they can be shucked 

 and frozen in air-tight containers too. 

 Taylor warns against freezing crab 

 meat already picked from the shell, be- 

 cause it loses its texture and flavor. 

 She suggests freezing the core of the 

 body and the pincers after the crab is 

 cooked, then picking out the meat 

 when it thaws. 



When thawing frozen fish or 

 shellfish, Taylor says, never leave it at 

 room temperature. Seafood is best 

 thawed by placing it under cold run- 

 ning water for 15 to 20 minutes. 



For more information about freezing 

 fish at home, write for UNC Sea Grant 

 publications, Don't Waste that Fish 

 (UNC-SG-75-23) and Bringing 

 the Catch Home (UNC-SG-78-05). 



