Are you getting the fish you are paying for?
Glazing with water/ice is a common practice in the frozen seafood industry in order to protect the delicate fish. However, in the past there has been some confusion among producers as to how to declare the ice glaze. Now the EU has set out new regulations for declaration of net weight on frozen seafood packaging.
Frozen seafood is often coated with a layer of clean water/ice of varying thickness in order to keep the product fresh and prevent the delicate meat from drying out during transportation and storage in freezers. In other words, the glaze works as an extra layer of air tight packaging reducing the rate of oxidation. Glaze is applied by dipping or spraying the frozen seafood product with potable water. The amount of glaze is dependent on the product temperature, the temperature of the water, the size and shape of the product, its surface area and the glazing time. Depending on the product, 8-12% glaze is common, but in extreme cases glaze of 25% on natural fish and 40% on prawns has been seen in the industry.
No common declaration practice
In the past, there has not been a common industry practice regarding the declaration of ice glaze on product packaging, which has made it very difficult for customers to compare prices and know exactly how much fish they were buying. Some producers declare net weight of the total content of the package, while others declare "drained net weight" (excluding glaze) or state both gross weight and net weight on the packaging. This can result in some products looking artificially cheaper than others. An example; a foodservice customer buys 5 kg of cod loins from two different producers, one of them declares net weight excl. glaze while the other just declare 5 kg on the packaging. If both producers glaze with 10% water, the end-user will get 500 g more fish from the first producer than from the second, making it very difficult to compare price per unit or price per kg.
EU regulations for standardization
In December 2014, the new EU Food Information Regulation took effect and it enforces a new legal obligation, according to which the labeled net weight of any glazed, frozen food must be the weight of the food item itself without the glaze. This means that only one weight has to be declared on the packaging providing increased price transparency for end-users. Producers have to implement this on their packaging before September 2016. Royal Greenland has been working for uniformity on the company's packaging for years, changing all packaging to net weight excl. glaze, in order to ensure that customers pay for fish and not for water.
Read more about quality of frozen fish and why it can be an advantage to choose frozen over fresh
