Shrimp consumption in the U.S. is in excess of 800
million pounds. Of this 800 million pounds 600 million is
imported and 20% of that is farm raised.
The countries that most of the shrimp is imported
from is China, Thailand, Indonesia, Denmark and India.
Shrimp is graded as A, B, or
substandard. The grade is determined by the amount
of dehydration, deterioration, pieces, size, unclean ends, texture
and the presence of legs, flippers and shells.
On breaded shrimp the quality is determined by
halos, balling up of the breading and holidays, meaning spots where
there is no breading.
Breaded shrimp must be at least 50% shrimp and no
more than 50% breading. Lightly breaded must contain at least 65% shrimp
and no more than 35% breading.
Imitation breaded shrimp means there is more than
50% breading. The more breading on the product, the lower the
price. The price of a product is also determined by the amount of
value that has been added.
A
butterfly breaded is shrimp split part way through on the vein side and
spread open.
Split breaded means completely dissected along the
first four segments, sometimes referred to as Western Style.
Hand breaded is labor intensive and more expensive
than machine breaded and results in a more attractive product.
There are over 300 species of shrimp, of which
about 80 are harvested commercially. When it comes to names few species
can beat shrimp.
There are species called
Aesop,
Barber Pole,
Endeavor,
Flower,
Greasyback,
Humpback,
Jack-knife,
Rainbow,
Red Rice,
Smooth
Nylon,
Southern Rough,
Spear,
Stiletto, just to
mention a few.
To keep things simple we have put them in three
categories; Pinks, Browns and Whites, and even then it is nearly
impossible to tell the difference after they are cooked. For everyone
buying or selling shrimp the important thing to look for is the
different level of value the processor has added to the product.
Shrimp is the number two selling seafood item in
the country, tuna being number one, it is an important item in
everyone's price book and on the menu.
First of all "green" means raw shrimp in the shell,
not the color of the shrimp.
Headless means the shrimp's shell and tail are left
in tact but the head of the shrimp has been removed. This is the
basic form of raw shrimp and involves the most amount of processing by
the operator.
The count refers to the number of shrimp per
pound. When we refer to a 16/20 shrimp, we are referring to a
pound of shrimp that has between 16 and 20 shrimp per pound.
The next step in processing the shrimp is to peel
and devein it. Peel means to remove the shell and devein means to
remove the digestive canal which runs along the shrimp's back. It
is now referred to as raw P & D and weighs about 25 percent
less. It is still considered a 16/20, the original size, even
though it takes 23 raw P & D shrimp to weigh a pound.
The key to remember is raw P & D shrimp will
always be referred to by its original green headless size. The
rest is easy. Cooked P & D and breaded shrimp are referred to
by the actual number of shrimp in a pound.
