Surimi Crab Sticks (Kanikama) for Sushi, Salads and Retail

Product overview

Surimi crab sticks, called kanikama in Japan, are a cooked fish product shaped and colored to resemble crab leg meat. Thailand is a major producer of both surimi and surimi seafood, working with its own threadfin bream surimi and with imported Alaska pollock surimi, and its sticks end up in California rolls, seafood salads, poke bowls, hot pot sets and snack packs. What a buyer is really choosing is the fish base, the share of surimi in the recipe and the texture that recipe gives, so those three points open every offer we make.

Surimi itself is washed, refined fish mince stabilized with sugar and sorbitol, and in many grades a little polyphosphate, then frozen in blocks. Alaska pollock (Gadus chalcogrammus) surimi from North Pacific fisheries gives a white, elastic gel, while threadfin bream (Nemipterus spp.) surimi made in Thailand and neighboring countries is the tropical mainstay; bigeye snapper, lizardfish and croaker surimi are also used. To make sticks, thawed surimi is chopped with water, potato, tapioca or wheat starch, egg white, salt, vegetable oil and crab flavoring, spread into a thin sheet, cooked, scored into fine strands, rolled, colored on the outer face and cooked again. The species and its percentage are written into the specification, and the whole fish is covered on our Alaska pollock page.

Sticks are cut to about 7⁠–⁠8 cm as standard, 12⁠–⁠15 cm as long sticks and 18⁠–⁠20 cm as jumbo sticks, film-wrapped or unwrapped. Flakes are torn into loose strands for salads, chunks are cut into short cylinders, shredded strands fill sushi rolls, and leg-style pieces are molded to the curve of a crab leg with a red outer face. Checks cover gel strength and springiness, how cleanly the fibers separate, evenness and bleed of the red layer, whiteness of the core, ease of peeling the film and water released on thawing. Because the sticks are often eaten without further cooking, lots are tested against the criteria for ready-to-eat foods agreed with the buyer, as described on our export quality assurance page.

Retail formats run from 200 g and 400 g trays to 250 g and 500 g vacuum packs, with 1 kg and 2.5 kg bags for foodservice and 10 kg cartons for salad and sushi producers. The red face can be colored with paprika extract, carmine or other colorants chosen against what the destination allows, and salt, sweetness and flavor strength can be adjusted within a recipe made under our private-label service. Sticks travel frozen by reefer; a retailer that thaws them for chilled display takes over the chilled shelf life and any defrosted labeling its market requires. For a product formed from similar paste, see fish balls and seafood balls.