Frozen At Sea >

Frozen at Sea (FAS) is a relatively new term to the United States. The concept however has been widely used in the European fishery since the early 1960's. The European fishing effort has been historically geared towards a smaller fishery and extended vessel trips where it was necessary to fish for longer periods of time before returning to home port. Consequently the Europeans developed expertise in the handling, freezing and storage of frozen seafood. FAS product from Europe, especially in groundfish species such as Haddock, is considered the standard by which all production is measured.

The hook and line FAS product from Norway that Bristol Seafood offers is of premium quality due to the harvesting methodology. The product is harvested in the Barents Sea between Norway and Russia. These Arctic and Sub Arctic waters are very cold and clear. The vessels are Hook and Line type, which deploy long lines with attached hooks. These hooks are individually bated and each hook will yield one fish. After the lines have been set for a period of time they are brought back into the vessel where the fisherman remove each fish individually, by hand and cut the gill cavity out. Then the fish is placed in a large stainless steel tank full of seawater. The cutting of the gill cavity causes the fish to bleed to death. With the blood pumped from the fish little blood is left to discolor the fillet. When dead the fish float to the surface and is removed from the tank to be gutted, cleaned, and the head removed. The fish are placed in a vertical plate freezer to be flash frozen at minus 30 degrees Fahrenheit less than an hour after their death. By freezing the fish in the whole state, the potential for freezer burn on the fillet is greatly reduced. After freezing the product is then packaged and stored in the ships freezer until arrival at port.

In port the frozen packages are placed on pallets and loaded into 40-foot long containers for the trip by sea to Bristol Seafood. The product is received at our plant and kept frozen until needed for processing.  Prior to processing the product is carefully defrosted in a saltwater tank for about 6 hours. Now ready for processing, the fish has been in an unfrozen state for 12 hours or less - equivalent to a fresh fish having been caught 12 hours previous. The completed fillets are shipped in insulated containers, usually within the next six hours. This provides the customer with a fillet that is more fresh, moist and firm than the usual "fresh" fillet available - fish that would have left the water at least 24 to 36 hours previous.