FOOD SERVICE SEAFOOD SALES

Today's food service industry expects high quality and high volume to provide quality results to its end customers. That's why Jana Brands World Wide Seafood has always taken steps to offer an extensive product line to the food service industry. Our frozen seafood products are always packed at the peak of freshness and frozen with innovative means to keep them fresher and attractive longer. That means longer shelf life and great savings, so food service purveyors can buy in bulk and save more.

Whether its shrimp by the boatload or fish by the net-full, Jana Brands delivers great tasting frozen seafood products packaged to ensure quality and deliver great taste by the plateful.

Check out the large selection of products we offer to the food service industry. It's an abundant selection you can pass on to your patrons, menus, clients, whomever!

Macadamia-Crusted Mahi-Mahi. Albacore With Won-Ton Crust and Orange Sauce. Cedar-Plank Alaskan King Salmon. Steamed Halibut With Young Leeks and Green Asparagus in a Rich Ocetra Caviar-and-Clam Broth. Those sure aren’t your mother’s fish recipes.

People didn’t know how to cook fish. Today, a lot more chefs know how to cook fish. And a lot more customers are ordering it.

According to a 1999 survey by the National Restaurant Association, 53 percent of table service restaurant operators say that their seafood sales have increased in the past two years. Seafood increased popularity surpassed that of any other item that restaurateurs were asked about in the survey, including chicken, beef and vegetarian entrees. Sales of sea fare have increased the most at upscale restaurants. More than 70 percent of restaurants with a check average of $25 or more reported increased seafood sales, compared with 25 percent of restaurants with checks averaging less than $8.

Customer Demand

In response to customer demand, restaurants are increasing their emphasis on seafood and fish. They have responded to what customers have said they wanted. The more seafood restaurants have added, the more people gravitated to it.

Changes in American culture have spurred the increased demand for fish. People are eating out more than once a week and they can’t eat beef all the time. People perceive fish to be a healthier alternative. A lot more people are dining out on a regular basis and are looking for alternatives. Fish tends to be lower in fat than beef. Some fishes, such as flounder and sole, have as little as one gram of fat per 3-ounce serving. Fish also tends to be a good source of omega 3 fatty acids. And more evidence is coming out to show that omega 3 fatty acids help prevent artery disease. Fish is also a good source of protein and essential B vitamins.

But consumers aren’t choosing fish only for its health benefits many simply like it, especially with today’s palate pleasing preparation methods.

Other fish

Consumers are not only eating more fish, but they’re also eating more types of it. While salmon remains a favorite, other fishes, including tuna and mahi-mahi, have gained popularity. People today are ordering products they wouldn’t have touched five, 10, 20, 25 years ago. . . . Mahi-Mahi is commonplace now. Ten years ago it was considered exotic.

Chilean sea bass has also gained tremendous popularity in recent years. The attraction to it is that it has a neutral flavor. It has a white meat that is gelatinous so it flakes easily and stands up to high temperatures, allowing you to infuse flavors.

Frequent Menu Changes

More and more people are eating out. They’re more adventurous, better educated, more sophisticated. The result: People are savoring preparation styles that they wouldn’t have dreamed of trying previously. People are ordering seared, rare tuna. Ten years ago that wouldn’t have happened anywhere but in California. Even having tuna in a restaurant was a stretch in the first place. If you did serve tuna, you probably served it well done.

Bold Asian flavors enhance other fish entrees. The Asian influence appears in dishes such as Monkfish With Black Thai Sticky Rice and Tangerine-and-Jalapeno Sauce With Bok Choy and Litchis.

Crusting is another popular preparation method today. A very nice way to cook certain types of fish is to crust them, because it helps to keep all the moisture in. You end up with a nice juicy piece of fish. It also helps give the fish a different texture.

Adventurous customers are also trying raw preparations that are flash-marinated with olive oil, lemon juice and herbs. When you marinate, it’s usually a long process. Flash marinating because you do it right before serving it. You don’t want to marinate fish for a [long] while, because the acidity will destroy the flavor of the fish and make it tough.

Traditional preparation methods such as grilling, sautéing, poaching or frying also remain popular. If you have a great piece of fish and you prepare it in a simple way, it can be delicious. You get the true flavors, the taste of the ocean.

Increase Demand

Unfortunately, the increased demand for fish isn’t all good news. The problem is there isn’t enough seafood to satisfy the demand for it. Ecologically, this means certain species are being over-fished. Economically, increasing demand and decreasing supply have pushed prices up.

Take, for example, Chilean sea bass. Six or seven years ago before the fish became popular it cost about $4 a pound. Since then, the demand for it has increased, the supply has decreased, and the price has more than doubled to
about $10 a pound.

We allowed too many boats to get involved in fishing. The fishermen became very efficient, and they didn’t realize the problem they were creating until the 11th hour. To help restock the supply of fish, the U.S. government has developed quotas and fishing regulations, including the 1996 Sustainable Fisheries Act. But it will take another five years before it [the fish supply] starts to come back.

In the short run, quotas tend to increase prices by limiting the fish supply. In the long run if successful quotas will allow fish to restock themselves. Anything that is done to secure the future of the fish supply is beneficial to to the seafood industry.

Aquaculture or farm-raising fish provides another solution to the fish shortage. Today, about 20 percent of the U.S. fish and seafood supply is farm-raised. Catfish, crawfish, trout, salmon and tilapia are the most commonly farm-raised fishes. In the next five to 10 years the amount of farm-raised fish will do nothing but increase.

Restaurateurs like it [farm-raised fish] because it offers them consistent product costs, which helps them budget their food costs. Mother Nature plays such an important factor with wild fish, causing the availability and cost to constantly fluctuate. With farm-raised fish, restaurateurs don’t have to play the market game. If the price changes, it’ll change by nickels, not by dollars.

Nonetheless, some chefs dislike farm-raised fish. Because it doesn’t taste good. A farm-raised striped bass doesn’t have the taste of wild fish. Wild fish has a full-flavored rich taste, while farm-raised fish tastes milder, say food experts. Chefs are real foodies so they tend to prefer the more distinct taste of wild fish.