There are a lot of frozen and canned clams
sold in food service, especially with clam chowder being the number one
selling soup in the country.
There are hundreds of species of
clams around the world with approximately one and one half million tons
harvested annually. In the United States there are 14 species of
clams harvested with only five having any commercial importance.
Atlantic hard shell, surf clams, ocean
quahogs, soft shell, all from the east coast and Manila clams from the west coast. There are
also clams available from Thailand, China, Vietnam mostly sold
frozen.
Quahogs, surf clams and Manila clams are
used for chowders, clam cakes, stuffed clams, etc.
Hard shell clams are the most popular clam
sold in the shell and soft shell clams, also called belly clams, are the
steamers and fryers of New England.
Many foodservice clams are sold in a 51
ounce can. The important factor in canned clams is the drained
weight. The drained weight of a 51 ounce can will vary from 22
ounces all the way down to 16 ounces. With a 6 ounce per can difference
on a case containing 12 cans that would be over 4 lbs less clams.
At a value of $2.50 per pound the value difference of the two cases
would be $10.00. This is normally not a problem with frozen clams
as they are pack as a drained weight product.
