Folded fish fillets a far worse offense than flat footballs

All this talk of deflation has me feeling less than pumped up these days. That’s mostly because, as a lifelong New England Patriots fan, I’ve had to endure endless media-driven drivel for nearly two weeks now about PSI, rubdowns and ballboys who’ve become “persons of interest.” If you’ve also had your fill of stories about cheating allegations, cutting corners and unfair advantages, then you might want to look away. But I’m talking about fish fillets, not flat footballs. Because there’s cheating going on in the seafood industry — shocking, I know.

Let’s say you bought a 1-pound pack of frozen salmon portions at the supermarket, brought the product home, thawed it out under cold water for dinner that night and then noticed that, once the glazing had been rinsed off, that each of the four portions included long, thin and practically useless pieces of belly flap in an obvious ruse to keep the product weight close to the “1 pound” printed on the label.

And what if, after removing the parts that should have been swept off the wet floor of a processing plant, you re-weighed the portions and the combined weight was closer to 11 ounces, not the stated 16? Would you even consider buying that product again? Not bloody likely. You might not want to buy frozen fish ever again.

This is, unfortunately, a more common packing method than many would believe — and truly upsetting that it’s sometimes requested by seafood buyers who only want to meet a certain price point. Thanks to Tradex Foods in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, the entire aforementioned thaw-and-trim procedure has been captured on video. In it, Michael Warren, now the company’s VP of procurement, takes a common retail package from a “leading manufacturer,” that was not identified, and, upon an initial, cursory inspection declares it to look “very, very nice.” In its frozen state, the product weighs a respectable 16.45 ounces, more than 1 pound. And then he opens it.

It does not take long for Warren to change his tune, however, as a quick rinse of the portions to remove the glazing yields not only a blatant example of short-weighting — the pieces now weigh 14.5 ounces total — but another and unsightly trick. The portions were untrimmed, with pieces of tail and belly flap folded under to gain their stated pack weight, “which they didn’t meet anyways,” says Warren.

Once the trimmings are removed, the final product weight is 11.05 ounces, far less than the 16 printed on the label. Not only that, but the portions are left with gaping holes, practically falling apart, and will likely yield a disappointing result when cooked. Warren is not impressed, nor would anyone who bought something like this to cook for the whole family.

“It’s unfortunate, for sure, and just a reminder that freezing can be the ultimate protection and the ultimate disguise,” he says near the end of the 5-minute, eye-opening spot. “It’s just too bad that the actions of a few unscrupulous processors can damage the reputation of the rest of the industry.”

Warren and his team should be commended for doing videos like this (they’ve been doing them for a few years now, he said). Other shorts feature Warren pulling the mask off other common seafood scams, deceptive processing practices and even legal processing techniques, like sodium tripolyphospate (STTP), a substance used to soak (and often oversoak) products like scallops that causes them to preserve moisture inside the flesh. In another video about excessive glazing, a pollock fillet simply falls apart in a frying pan in less than a minute. That’s not the kind of product you’d want associated with your brand.

“We’re opening eyes to the hazards that are out there,” Warren told me earlier this week. “I’m optimistic, because of exposing companies chasing the cash, whether or not it’s more prevalent now. We’re comfortable with the supplier base we have in China. Still, even now, if I see less than net-weight offers, I will disclose that to federal authorities. Also the [National Fisheries Institute’s Better Seafood Board] is really helping things. But the [short-weight] offers are still coming. There’s going to be buyers that say, ‘Look at that price! I’m in.’”

Tradex’s “School of Fish” articles and videos can be found here.

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