Many people are probably familiar with the method of 'Knocking shrimp in ice' or 'Fish smashing’' to prepare live seafood ingredients for cooking. Which is the one of the most common methods used in Thailand.
But if there are other methods that are new and easy to deal with raw materials Ready to maintain the quality, freshness, cleanliness of the raw materials and, most importantly, still maintain the welfare of the animals. It's another interesting option.
Today 𝐋𝐞𝐭'𝐬 𝐬𝐞𝐚 brings you an article from TheFishSite introducing everyone to the new ongoing trend that is practiced amongst many countries to help promote the reduction of marine animal cruelty before being used as raw material for cooking while also promoting the freshness, cleanliness and quality of seafood from the restaurant to consumers.
According to an article from Thefishsite : Hilton Seafood UK has received an award for trialling and adopting an electric stunner for farmed whiteleg shrimp, which delivers a more humane method of slaughter than immersion in ice slurry.
The company was the winner of the best innovation category of Compassion in World Farming’s Good Farm Animal Welfare Awards, which were presented today.
Hilton Seafoods (HSF) is one of the largest distributors of fresh seafood in the UK and it supplies over 100 million vannamei shrimp a year to Tesco. Shrimp are traditionally slaughtered using ice slurry but, in a bid to improve animal welfare, in June 2020 the company trialled an Optimar electrical stunner
It was the first large-scale electrical stunning system used for shrimp globally and was able to process 10 tonnes of shrimp an hour. Following successful results, and a review of the outcomes by external animal welfare experts, Tesco approved the use of electrical stunning
According to Compassion in World Farming, in addition to the welfare benefits it provides, which includes less handling and lower crowding times for the shrimp, the method was shown to stun more quickly than immersion in ice slurry, and provide a more effective and consistent stun, which reduces labour during harvest, while not being detrimental to product quality.
The system, which has been approved and rolled out across the Hilton/Tesco supply chain, will benefit more than 100 million animals in its first year.
“Hilton Seafoods UK take fish and crustacean welfare extremely seriously and actively seek out improved welfare methods and the latest research on welfare and animal handling,” said William Davies, fisheries, aquaculture and supply chain manager at Hilton Seafood UK. “Working with our supplier partners we are very happy with the performance of the shrimp stunner, enabling both improved welfare at harvest and a harvest efficiency benefit for the farmer. Awareness of crustacean sentience is growing, and the implementation of the farmed shrimp stunner adds to the existing electrical stunning we have in all the wild caught crab and lobster we purchase.”
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