Happy St. Patrick’s Day! It’s Day 3 of the International Boston Seafood Show. Though the annual three-day event is winding down, there’s still plenty of news to report from the show floor:
Blount Fine Foods of Fall River, Mass., on Monday introduced a line of frozen gourmet soups for retail under the Blount brand. The line includes New England Clam Chowder, Lobster Bisque and Shrimp & Corn Chowder. Maryland Crab Soup and Manhattan Clam will be launched soon.
The 20-ounce soups will initially be available in supermarkets and specialty food stores on the East Coast, and in club stores nationwide in double packs. The suggested retail price is expected to range from USD 5.99 to 6.99 (EUR 4.60 to 5.37).
Company president Todd Blount said people are eating out less frequently, but they still seek the quality and experience of a restaurant. “It’s about bringing restaurant-quality soup to retail,” Blount said from the show floor.
Blount already has a retail presence, with a line of fresh gourmet soups marketed under the Panera Bread and Legal Sea Foods names in club stores nationwide, including Costco and BJ’s.
Global Food Technologies of Hanford, Calif., announced that its iPura system, which it bills as “the world’s first food-safety brand,” is being put to use at Tongwei (Hainan) Aquatic Products’ new 1-million-square-foot processing facility in China. The company processes tilapia.
Shrimp, pangasius and Chilean salmon are among the seafood products that will soon carry the iPura label, once the facilities that processes them install the iPura system, said Jason Simas, GFT’s director of communications, from the show floor.
“We’re getting a lot of interest,” he said.
The iPura technology builds in controls along the supply chain, from production to market, to combat foodborne illnesses and prevent contaminants from entering the food supply. The system provides an onsite food-safety team that includes microbiologists, system operators, technicians and quality control personnel.
Harbor Crown Seafoods’ fresh, raw, never-frozen Alaska king crab created a lot of buzz on the show floor. The Dutch Harbor, Alaska, company’s display featured a roped-off private tasting of its unique product, complete with a bouncer dressed in black.
Even Iron Chef star Masaharu Morimoto, who gave the Free Keynote Address at the Boston Seafood Show on Monday, stopped by to taste the product, which will be launched at a press conference in New York in two to three months.
“It’s amazing. No one has ever worked with a product quite like this before,” said Katie Cavuto, owner of Healthy Bites in Philadelphia, an organic meal-delivery service, as she prepared the king crab for visitors. “It’s a futuristic product.”
