Frozen Seafood Mix Supplier: Shrimp, Squid, Mussels and Clams to Recipe

Product overview

A seafood mix is only as good as its recipe sheet. Retail buyers want a bag that looks generous and cooks evenly, chefs want pieces that finish at the same moment in a paella pan, and manufacturers want a ratio that does not drift from one container to the next. We build each mix to a written recipe that fixes the percentage by weight of every component, the cut and size of each one, whether it goes in raw or cooked, and the glaze, then check finished bags against that recipe before loading.

The standard blend has four components: peeled shrimp, usually farmed whiteleg shrimp (Penaeus (Litopenaeus) vannamei); squid rings and tentacles from inshore Uroteuthis or from Illex; cooked mussel meat; and clams, either as cooked meat or as small whole clams in the shell. Premium and regional versions add cuttlefish, baby octopus, scallop meat, surimi or white fish pieces, while a paella mix keeps some shellfish in the shell for presentation and a stir-fry mix uses scored squid or cuttlefish. Components can come from different origins, so the ingredient specification lists each species with its country of origin or catch area.

Each component is cleaned, cut and, where the recipe calls for it, blanched or cooked on its own line, then frozen individually so that the pieces stay free-flowing in the bag. They are weighed into the blend in the agreed proportions, glazed and packed for retail, foodservice or bulk use. Our checks take a bag apart after deglazing and weigh each component against the recipe, looking also for clumping, broken or undersized pieces, shell fragments, sand in clam and mussel meat, and frost inside the pack that would point to temperature abuse. Own-brand paella, pasta and stir-fry blends run through our private-label program.

The mussel and clam components must come from classified harvest areas with biotoxin monitoring, exactly as they would when sold on their own, and the shrimp, squid and bivalve lots each bring their own test results into the finished blend; the way results attach to lot codes is set out under export quality assurance. Where a recipe combines raw and cooked items, the cooking instructions are written for the raw component, since everything in the bag has to be cooked through. Buyers who prefer to blend in-house can order single components from our frozen squid, frozen mussels and frozen clams lines.