Mazzetta Company, LLC | Oishii Shrimp
Highland Park, Illinois, U.S.A-based Mazzetta Company had been conceptualizing Oishii Shrimp for over a decade by the time it introduced the flagship premium product line to the market in January 2019.
“Over a decade in planning, we had one goal; bring our customers a visually compelling shrimp with unmatched flavor and texture,” the company said in its initial marketing of the line. “The end result, Oishii Shrimp, will break the standards of expectations for shrimp.”
Harvested via dedicated small-batch farming methods, Oishii Shrimp goes “from swimming to frozen within four hours,” according to Mazzetta’s website. Featured in the New Product Showcase at the 2019 Seafood Expo North America event in Boston, Massachusetts, Oishii Shrimp was built upon three pillars: rapid transportation, fresh processing, and proximity farming. The fact that the shrimp are produced so close to processing facilities and transported live via aerated tanks serves to differentiate the line in the market, Tom Mazzetta, the company’s founder and CEO, told SeafoodSource back at the beginning of the year.
“We started asking ourselves how we could do something new and different in the shrimp industry, and we arrived at the idea of bringing shrimp to the factory live, like you would do with poultry or beef. All our Oishii shrimp arrive at the factory live and are processed live,” Mazzetta said.
The Oishii line of shrimp (“oishii” means delicious in Japanese) is meant for both foodservice and retail, and was conceived with the help of Bangkok, Thailand-based Charoen Pokphand Foods (CP Foods), Mazzetta’s shrimp farming partner. The shrimp used in the line are 3-star Best Aquaculture Practices (BAP) certified.
Here’s what Mazzetta Company had to share with SeafoodSource about its innovation process for Oishii Shrimp, and the other products on offer in its portfolio.
What kind of trends have informed Mazzetta’s latest product innovations?
“Mazzetta’s latest product innovations have primarily focused on bringing seafood options to restaurant and fast-casual dining. Healthy and all-natural entrées are a guiding light in the food industry right now, it’s only logical that seafood gets a larger stage presence. We work with our customers every day to either enhance, add-to, or replace current items that resonate a healthy lifestyle choice for the end consumers.”
Which products have you seen really resonate in 2018/2019?
“We are supremely proud of the reception of our new flagship brand, Oishii Shrimp, which released [in] 2019. We feel that all natural and chemical-free products will always be a focus, but with Oishii, it is a product you can visually see how much more vibrant and colorful the shrimp are due to the live transportation. The response of that visual difference, and ultimately, the taste, is really what we see.”
What key features serve to set Mazzetta’s new products apart in the market?
“All-natural, chemical-free, and minimally-processed products are our current focus on driving the best quality product to the seafood industry. In addition, we have an in-house corporate chef to assist our restaurant customers for seafood ideation. Every week our chef is working with restaurant and grocery chains to come up with seafood-integrated products to enhance their selection. Whether that is a value-added shrimp cocktail or a unique take on the traditional lobster roll being served at fast casual locations nationwide, Mazzetta is growing beyond a seafood supplier, we are a partner in our customers successes.”
Photo courtesy of Mazzetta Company
