The United States once had multiple tuna canning sites primarily located along the West coast, but most were shut down due to environmental impact concerns and to the lower cost of processing in other countries. In the eastern Pacific, dolphins frequently travel with tuna and can be unintentionally caught during fishing. This is one reason tuna fishing has shifted to the west Pacific, where dolphin safety is less problematic. The majority of processing plants for many large tuna companies in the United States are located internationally; the majority of canned tuna is processed in Thailand and across Southeast Asia.
Most skipjack tuna are caught by purse seine fishing, which involves lowering a cylindrical net around a school of fish, closing the bottom, and lifting the net out of the water. This method of fishing reduces levels of bycatch while being efficient technique to catch large schools of fish.
Larger types of tuna are caught via other methods, like longlining, which uses a mainline equipped with many hooks and bait that can extend for kilometers in deep waters, or trolling, which entails trailing a short-baited line behind the boat. Fishing vessels store the fish on ice and transport the catch to shore. Fisheries and processing plants are usually near the docks for convenient unloading. After being unloaded from fishing vessels and kept in cold storage, the tuna fish are thawed in tanks of water.
The fish are then sorted by size on large racks to be pre-cooked, which strips away any unwanted oils. Sorting the fish by size before pre-cooking minimizes the weight loss that results from overcooking.
This first cooking process can last from 45 minutes to three hours. After pre-cooking and cooling, the fish are de-boned, the skin is removed, and the meat is separated into light meat and red meat. Lighter meat is designated for the canning process while red meat is typically used in pet food.
The parts of the fish for human consumption, called loins, are then cleaned before entering the canning phase. Following the cleaning and preparation phase, the tuna meat is packed in cans along with broth, oil, or water, and sometimes seasoning, such as salt.
The cans receive lids and are vacuum sealed to prevent leakage and contamination. The cans are then washed before being cooked and sterilized at high temperatures that must reach over degrees to ensure the absence of live bacteria inside the sealed containers. Of particular concern are spore-forming anaerobic bacteria, such as Clostridium botulinum.
The cans are cooled, labeled, and checked for quality assurance. This process involves assessing damage to the cans, including dents, swelling, and malfunctioning seals, which could indicate potential contamination. Cans are then shipped to warehouses and sent out to stores around the United States where they can remain on shelves for 2—5 years.
The most important step in the canning process is heat sterilization. After this, cans are closed and sterilized. The sterilization process ensures the destruction of all contaminating bacteria, so the product is fit for human consumption. Sorry, but we do not commercialize these products. Your email address will not be published. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. As every April, the Cantabrian anchovy Engraulis Encrasicolus approaches our coasts in order to complete its reproductive cycle.
This is when the anchovy season begins, which lasts all spring long. The anchovy is fished with purse seine, through which the school of fish on the surface is surrounded, forming a degree circle.
Once surrounded, the […]. How canned tuna is processed, step by step Manual elaboration of canned tuna is a long-standing tradition in the Basque Country, particularly in cans that weigh more than one kilo, directed to the catering sector. The fact that frozen tuna is placed in the cans versus already cooked tuna, as is the standard with many canned tuna brands , means the tuna is only cooked once, and not twice.
This minimal cooking helps the tuna retain more of its natural flavor and nutrients, says Jacobs, since the cooking process in general—whether with fish, meat or produce—causes some leakage of nutrients and flavor. The final step at StarKist: liquid is added either water, vegetable broth, or oil to the can.
From there, the cans are placed in a special cooker that heats the cans to a high temperature very quickly under pressure. Once the sterilization process is complete, the cans are good to go. StarKist cans have a shelf life of 4 years, and Wild Planet cans are good for 3 years. Tuna, in general, is a great source of many nutrients, including protein, selenium, and Vitamin D, says Lauren Manaker , a South Carolina-based registered dietitian. These brands are not ocean safe and do not protect sea life populations.
These brands are dedicated to safe and sustainable fishing practices and protecting the Earth's oceans so that generations in the future can enjoy the simple pleasure of canned tuna. Despite canned tuna's rapid rise in popularity throughout the s, in recent years, tuna consumption has declined, and consumers are opting against the canned fish.
Starting in the mids, canned tuna sales began declining , and current consumption rates are as low as they once were in the s.
Over 80 percent of American households once kept tuna as a staple in their cupboards, but fears about mercury poisoning and sustainability concerns have stifled the reign of the tuna fish, leaving consumers feeling disillusioned from the canned treat. Indeed, the midcentury days of canned tuna being marketed as a novel way of consuming fish using modern technology are long behind us, and tuna has become milquetoast, ubiquitous, and associated with boring school lunches for most American consumers.
Fears about tunas toxicity and bad press about tuna fisheries being responsible for mass-killings of dolphins have also led to the downfall of the mighty tuna. Tuna aren't just big, they're downright massive!
The biggest bluefin tuna ever caught was caught in October of by Captain Eric Samson. The tuna was a whopping 1, pounds — and that's even after lying on a boat and losing water weight for ten hours.
Still, that truly gigantic tuna fish took Captain Eric Samson only 45 minutes to reel into his boat. The tuna was pretty much twice as long as Eric Samson's height, and while this monster tuna dwarfs some of its smaller contemporaries, bluefin tuna are a very big fish with almost robotic features. An adult bluefin tuna will grow up to pounds, which means one tuna can produce a lot of cans of tuna, like a whole supermarket shelf's worth! Not only are bluefin tuna monstrously large, but they can command a fortune when they go to market.
This one should probably be a given, but, surprisingly, it is not. There is nothing fresh about canned tuna, as much as American consumers might want to think there is.
Canning is, of course, a preservation method. Canning is a strategy for giving fish a long lasting shelf life, which is useful for keeping protein around as a pantry staple either for school lunches, when you are on your last meal in between grocery trips, or during, say, a nationwide coronavirus pandemic induced lockdown. No matter the occasion, canned tuna can be a great treat!
That said, tuna are caught long in advance of when they make it into your pantry in the form of a canned good, so if you are looking for a fresh fish, you'll be better off sticking with sashimi and poke, rather than a long-preserved can of solid white albacore packed in water.
Those familiar with laws of kosher foods in the Jewish religion will know that Jewish people who keep kosher do not eat shellfish, as it does not fall within the laws of permissible foods according to kashrut, the set of laws that make foods okay to eat for certain observant Jewish people. Tuna, however, is not qualified as shellfish according to those rules, for a pretty simple reason: it does not have a shell.
Perhaps, for this reason, tuna is actually a very popular food among Ashkenazi Jewish populations, and tuna salad is a well-known staple in most Jewish delis.
0コメント