Seafood Processor Definitions

These definitions were developed from submissions by members of the Seafood Industry. Please contact us with additional definitions or corrections that we may add to this seafood processor definitions list. Add new seafood processor definitions.

A

• Akami - Akami, which literally means red meat is the leanest part of the fish. It should be noted that with 26% fat it is still significantly fattier than salmon. It is the most abundant part of the fish which makes it less expensive than other cuts. Many Japanese chefs prefer akami because it has a clean bright flavor and vibrant color amd it is excellent for classic western preparations such as tartar or carpaccio.

B

• Battered - Product is covered, usually with egg or flour and partially cooked prior to freezing.
• B/F-Block Frozen - Blocks are uniformly shaped masses of cohering fish fillets or a mixture of fillets and minced fish flesh, or entirely minced fish flesh ranging in weight from 13 to 16 lbs. intended for further processing into fish sticks and portions. Larger blocks may contain whole dressed fish for subsequent thawing, processing or resale.
  1. Block-Boned/Boneless - Product has been processed to remove backbone and rib bones.
  2. Fillet block - Product skinless fillets laminated in a plate freezer with perfect corners and edges exactly 7 48 kgs in weight generally 140 blocks on a pallet.
  3. H&G block - Product headed and gutted
  4. Mince block - Product minced fish flesh
  5. Piece block - Product chunks/pieces
• BFT - Bluefin Tuna
• Breaded - Product is covered in breadcrumbs and seasonings.
• Bits & Pieces- Bits & pieces of fish block laminated in a plate freezer with perfect corners and edges exactly 7 48 kgs in weight generally 140 blocks on a pallet
• Brine Freezing - Freezing seafood by soaking in liquid brine.
• Bullets - hole gutted fish with head and tail removed.
• Bushel - Measure equal to 8 gallons or 32-quart capacity.
• Butterfly Fillet - Fish is cut along both sides with the two pieces remaining joined by the skin of the back.
• Butterfly Shrimp - Peeled and deveined shrimp with the shell left on the last (tail) segment.

C

• Candling - Skin is removed by an automated skinner. After skinning the fillets, the flesh is run by bright lights and inspected for defects.
• Chu-toro - Chu-toro means medium fat in the summer months. A tuna only has chu-toro and akami parts since the fish is swimming around a lot more and is leaner in winter however the chu-toro is meltingly soft and has a very different flavor from akami.
• Chubs - Mechanically filled tubes of various colors of various weights of between 2 & 5 kgs each chub and fixed with a metal or plastic clip at either end.
• Chunks - Chunks or off cuts of fish produced generally from a filleting or portioning operation. Chunk sizes will vary and they should be skinless and boneless
• Cocktail claw - Claws from a crab with part of the shell removed to expose the meat.
• Croquettes - Patties containing a mixture of breading or breadcrumbs or other binder, usually at least 35% seafood, such as combination of fish and crabmeat.
• CPND - Cooked, Peeled & Deveined
• CPTO - Cooked Peeled Tail On
• Curing - Using salt or sugar to draw moisture from the flesh of fish, also used to enhance flavor.
• Cubes - Generally IQF individually quick frozen cubes cut into various sizes from 4mm upwards.
• Custom Cut - Irregularly shaped triangle cut from a block of frozen fish.

D

• DWT - Dressed Headless Without Tail
• Dressed Fish - Completely cleaned, but with head on (head removed is usually called pan-dressed). Catfish - deheaded, eviscerated and skinned. Dressed in NZ commonly refers to a HG or HGT fish which has the head cut which carries further back, the angle is more severe into the belly ( giving lower H&G recovery ) also known as a J cut, for red fish etc.
• Depuration Processor (DP) - A person who receives shellstock from approved or conditionally approved, restricted or conditionally restricted growing areas and submits such shellstock to an approved depuration process.

E

• Ex-vessel Price - Price received by fishermen for fish, shellfish and other aquatic plants and animals landed at the dock.

F

• Fancy - Crab sandwich-style mix of leg and shoulder/body meat.
• FAS - Frozen At Sea
• Fillet - A slice of fish flesh of irregular size and shape that is removed by a cut made parallel to the backbone.
• Fillet - Fillet with the nugget (belly flap attached to it.)
• Fillets skinless belly flap off
• Fillets skinless belly flap on
• Fillets skinless boneless
• Fillets skinless bone in
• Fillets skin on belly flap on
• Fillets skin on belly flap off
• Fillets skin on boneless
• Fillets skin on bone in
• Fingers - Irregular-shaped pieces of fish, similar to a long, thin fillet, breaded or battered, raw or pre-cooked, usually machine cut from fish block, then coated and fried.
• Flakes - Flakes of fish flakes are easiest produced from cooked or pasteurised fish.
• Fletch - Large boneless fillet of halibut, swordfish or tuna.
• FOB/FOT - Free on board/Free on truck. Charges beyond the termination point are the buyer's responsibility.

G

• GG - Gilled and gutted. Completely cleaned, but with head on.
• GGS - Gilled, Gutted, Scaled
• Glaze - Protective coating of ice on frozen product, used to prevent dehydration.
• Groundfish - Fish caught on or near the sea floor. The term usually applies to cod, cusk, haddock, hake, pollock and Atlantic ocean perch.

H

• H+G - Headed and Gutted
• HGT - Headed, Gutted, Tail-off
• HOSO - Head-On Shell-On
• HLSO - Headless Shell-On
• H/O - Head-on
• H/L - Headless

I

• INTL - Interleaved
• IQF - Portions or chunks of fish that are Individually Quick Frozen
• IWP - Individually Poly-Wrapped

J

• J - Cut - Trimming a fillet removing both the nape and pinbones.
• Julienne - Strips of fish that are cut into thin strips.

K

• Kirimi - Take the head and tail off, leave in the guts (called kirimi), and then freeze the fish or portion cut from a fillet, then tempura fried.
• Kg, Kilo, Kilogram - Metric weight equivalent to 2.2046 lbs. Imported product is often sold by the kilogram.
• Kipper - To cure (herring, salmon, etc.) by cleaning, salting and drying or smoking.

L

• Layer Pack - Product, usually fillets, put into a carton in layers with a sheet of polyethylene between each layer of product.
• Laminated Fish Block- Laminated in a plate freezer with perfect corners and edges exactly 7 48 kgs in weight. Generally 140 blocks are on a pallet.
• Logs - Dressed headless without the tail or D.W.T.
• Loin - The boneless portion cut lengthwise from either side of the backbone of a large, round-bodied fish. The back portion of the fillet having had removed the belly section.
• Lox - Smoked salmon.

M

• Merus - Crab all legs.
• Mince Block - Laminated block of mince fish fish pieces that have been passed through a Baader machine or similar mechanical devise to separate out the skin and bone.
• Molting - The shedding of the exoskeleton of crustaceans, allowing for new growth.

N

• Net Weight - The weight of product less the amount of packing material or glaze.
• Nugget - The belly flap of a fish, usually removed manually from the fillet.

O

• Ocean Run - Industry term for a pack of random weight and size products. Catchweight, or random weight ctns.
• Offcuts - Pieces of fish of varying sizes that have been removed during the portioning or filleting operation.
• O-toro - O-toro means big fat and that that's what it is, a piece of well-marbled o-toro looks like top-quality kobe steak. When you dip your sadhimi or sushi into soy sauce you'll even see a glisten of oil left behind.

P

• Pasteurizing - A process (usually heating) to kill most pathogenic organisms, reduce the total microbial flora, and inactivate enzymes (indirectly).
• Precooked - Portion that has been cooked or partially cooked, so the product requires only heating or minimal cooking prior to consumption.
• Post Harvest Processor(PHP) - A certified dealer with the capability to apply a validated post harvest process to reduce the level s of hazards not addressed by controls in the 2003 NSSP Guide for the control of molluscan shellfish chapters XI through XIV.
• Pinbones - Fine bones found along the middle of fillets.
• P&D - Peeled and deveined
• PUD - Peeled Undeveined
• PB/I - Pin Bone In
• PBI - Pin Bone In
• PBO - Pin Bone Out
• PND - Peeled & Deveined
• PTO - Peeled Tail On
• PPV - Peeled Pull Veined

Q

R

• Repacker(RP) - A person other than the original certified shucker-packer who repacks shucked shellfish into other containers. A re-packer also may repack and ship shellstock. A repacker shall not shuck shellfish.
• Reshipper(RS) - A person who purchases shucked shellfish or shellstock from other certified shippers and sells the product without repacking or relabeling to other certified shippers, wholesalers or retailers.
• RHSO - Raw Headless Shell On
• RPD - Raw Peeled & Deveined
• RPTO - Raw Peeled Tail On
• Round Fish - Fish sold just as they come from the water. They must be dressed before cooking.

S

• Salad - Crab bricks of shoulder/body meat.
• Sasgunu Grade - Regular fish eaten soon after it is caught.
• Sashimi Grade - Regular fish eaten soon after it is caught.
• SBT - Southern Bluefin Tuna
• Scampi - Scampi is the plural of "Scampo", which is the Italian name for the Norway Lobster. It is also known as the Dublin Bay Prawn especially in the UK while in France it is called langoustine. The fleshy tail of the Norwegian Lobster is closer in both taste and texture to lobster and crayfish than prawn or shrimp in the UK. Scampi refers to a dish of shelled tail meat coated in breadcrumbs or batter deep fried and often served with chips peas and tartar sauce. In the USA Scampi, another name for large shrimp usually about 1 oz or larger, is often the menu name for shrimp. In Italian-American cuisine the term scampi by itself is also the name of a dish of shrimp served in garlic butter and dry white wine served either with bread or over pasta. Sometimes the word scampi is often used to refer to a certain style of preparation and not just the lobster itself for example, shrimp scampi is actually a dish made scampi-style in popular Italian-American cuisine.
• Scraped Meat - Meat that has been "hand recovered" from the backbone.
• Sections - The three walking legs and one claw on one side of king, snow or Dungeness crab, all attached at the shoulder.
• Shank fillet - Fillet where the nugget has been removed.
• Shatterpack - A box of frozen fish fillets separated by interleaved polyethylene sheets. Dropping the box, "shattering" the pack, can separate fillets.
• Shellfish - All edible species of oysters, clams, mussels and scallops; either shucked or in the shell, fresh or frozen, whole or in part. Scallops are to be excluded when the final product is the shucked adductor muscle. Only the 1991 ISSC Scallop Committee Report provided a two year period for incorporating whole and roe-on scallops into the NSSP.
• Shellstock Shipper(SS)- A person who grows harvest, buys or repacks and sells shellstock. They are not authorized to shuck shellfish nor to repack shucked shellfish. A shellstock shipper may also ship shucked shellfish.
• Shucker Packer(SP)- Aperson who shucks and packs shellfish. A shucker-packer may act as a shellstock shipper or reshipper or may repack shellfish originating from other certified dealers.
• Skinned - Some species of fish are skinned rather than dressed, such as catfish and eels.
• Skin-on Fillets- Filletss of fish with the skin left on.
• Skin-on Portions- Portions of fish with the skin left on.
• Snap-and-eats - Crab legs that have been scored to allow them to be broken easily during eating..
• S/O - scale off
• Splits - Crab legs that have been split in half length-wise exposing the meat.
• Steak - Slices of dressed fish smaller than chunks. They yield an edible portion of about 86% to 92%. They are ready for cooking.
• Stock Fish - The OECD Multilingual Dictionary of Fish and Fish Products states stockfish is gutted, headed, unsplit or split fish such as cod, coalfish, haddock, and hake dried hard without salt in open air.
• Stuffed Fish -Whole dressed fish which are stuffed with dressing stuffing before cooking.
• Surimi (Japanese for formed fish) is frozen minced fish which is produced from Skinless fishes such as Alaska Pollock, Hake, Pacific Blue Whiting, Threadfin Beam and etc. In Southeast Asia, the overwhelming majority of Surimi Raw Material comes from Threadfin Beam, Big Eye, Ponyfish, Lizard, Yellow Goatfish and Red Mullet.

T

• Tails - Fish portion that resembles the tail of a fish, boneless, usually breaded or batter-dipped, raw or precooked. The term is also applied to shrimp and spiny lobster with reference to their meaty tail sections.
• Tempura Batter - A light Japanese-style batter.
• Ton - In international seafood sales, usually refers to a metric ton (2,205 lbs.).

U

V

• Vacum Packed Portion- Portions that have been vacuumed packed often individually.

W

• Wheels - Straight cuts across a whole fish.
• Whole Fish - Fish sold just as they come from the water. They must be dressed before cooking.

X

Y

• Yield - The percentage of a fish that is edible or sellable.

Z