Christine Blank

Target Corp. is adding fresh and frozen seafood products in its P-Fresh format stores and its SuperTarget stores this year.

The Minneapolis, Minn.-based retailer, the United States’ second largest after Walmart, is remodeling 400 of its traditional stores in 2011 to the P-Fresh concept, which offers a limited selection of seafood, meat, produce, dairy products, frozen foods and dry grocery items. In 2010, Target retrofitted around 350 of its

It’s January, and Americans are seeking healthier foods as part of their New Year’s resolutions. So retailers and seafood-marketing organizations nationwide are jumping on board by promoting seafood’s healthful benefits.

“During January, we do our best to promote fresh fillets, such as cod, haddock, salmon, pollock and flounder. We advertise our Grade A items, as well as items that are heart healthy, along with [those that have] our high

 The long-standing Sam’s Chowder House, which serves authentic New England fare along the shoreline in Half Moon Bay, Calif., is expanding its successful food-truck service. After forming a separate operation for its Sam’s Chowder House food truck last year, it will add another Sam’s ChowderMobile — serving a variety of fresh seafood appetizers, sandwiches and entrées — by this summer.

 SeafoodSource recently caught up with Paul

While Cochon in New Orleans is primarily known for its meats and sausages made in-house, its owners’ allegiance to Gulf seafood has kept many of its customers loyal to the eatery, even after the devastating oil spill. At the Cajun restaurant, co-owners Stephen Stryjewski and Donald Link feature handmade crawfish pies, roasted oysters and other seafood specialties, in addition to the boudin, andouille, smoked bacon and head cheese they produce

New U.S. Department of Agriculture-mandated nutrition labels on meat products may benefit retailers’ fresh seafood sales.

The USDA issued a final rule on 29 December, stating that 40 of the most popular cuts of packaged meat and poultry products are required to include nutritional facts panels by January 2012. The nutrition facts panel will include number of calories, grams of total fat and saturated fat and a new “fat percentage.”

So any

Editor's note: SeafoodSource will not publish its newsletter on Friday in observance of Christmas. The newsletter will return on Monday. Thank you, and season's greetings.

Supermarkets are taking a new approach to promoting seafood this holiday season, focusing on different marketing avenues than they have in the past.

United Supermarkets in Lubbock, Texas, has pushed sales of its shrimp party trays and other seafood items much higher this

Distributor and retailer Santa Monica Seafood’s first foray into the full-service restaurant business happened in a roundabout way soon after it opened its second retail market in Santa Monica, Calif., about 15 years ago.

“When we opened the store, the location we took over was a restaurant and the owners of the property wanted to maintain its designation as a restaurant. We just wanted to open a market,” says Michael Cigliano, executive VP

While Passion Food Hospitality Restaurants of Washington, D.C., participated in the Dine America/Dine Louisiana event on 1 December to benefit Gulf seafood, it is not unusual for the company to champion Gulf fish.

The restaurants operated by Passion Food — including Acadiana, Louisiana Fish House, Ceiba and TenPenh in Washington, D.C. , and PassionFish in Reston, Va. — serve thousands of pounds of Gulf seafood daily.

In November alone, Passion

Chicago-based foodservice research and consulting firm Technomic recently named its top 11 restaurants trends for 2011, and seafood stands to benefit from several of the movements.

One of the trends identified by Technomic that started in 2010 and will continue in 2011 is “frugality fatigue.” Diners are getting tired of penny pinching and will pay for luxury dining, including upscale seafood restaurants and steakhouses.

“People who can are