Frozen Cuttlefish Supplier: Whole Cleaned, Fillets and Strips

Product overview

Cuttlefish carries more meat per animal than a squid of the same length, because its broad, flat mantle is thicker and is built around a porous internal shell rather than a thin pen. Once that cuttlebone is taken out and the skin peeled away, what remains is dense, white, mildly sweet flesh that stays firm through a hot wok or a long braise. Frozen cuttlefish therefore sells to two kinds of buyer: kitchens that want whole animals with presentation value, and processors and caterers that want clean fillets and strips cut to a fixed size.

Most of our supply is pharaoh cuttlefish (Sepia pharaonis) and needle cuttlefish (Sepia aculeata), taken by trawl and trap in the Gulf of Thailand, the Andaman Sea, Vietnamese waters and along the Indian coast, with spineless cuttlefish (Sepiella inermis) traded as a smaller alternative. Common cuttlefish (Sepia officinalis) from the eastern Atlantic and the Mediterranean can be offered on request for Southern European buyers who want the species their customers know. Every lot carries its scientific name and catch area, which also stops cuttlefish and squid strips being confused at the cutting stage.

Whole round cuttlefish is frozen ungutted with the ink sac in place. Whole cleaned product has the viscera, ink sac, eyes, beak and bone removed, comes skin-on or skinless with the tentacles attached or packed separately, and is graded by weight per piece in bands such as 50⁠–⁠100 g, 100⁠–⁠200 g, 200⁠–⁠500 g and over 500 g. Fillets are the opened, skinless mantle, graded by pieces per kilogram and cut further into strips or into a criss-cross scored pattern that curls into a ridged pine-cone shape when cooked. Some fillets and strips are soaked to soften the texture and hold moisture, and we declare any such treatment together with the glaze.

Inspectors check that the flesh is bright white without yellowing or pink patches, that no cuttlebone fragments remain, that ink staining stays within the agreed tolerance and that fillets are whole rather than torn, then verify piece weight and glaze on thawed samples. Spanish and Portuguese buyers fry strips and grill whole cleaned bodies, Italian and Greek kitchens stew cuttlefish in its ink, and Asian menus use scored fillets in stir-fries, hot pot and salads. For long-simmered Cantonese soups and snack roasting, the sun-dried form is listed as dried cuttlefish, and one container can combine cuttlefish with frozen squid or frozen octopus.