Saving Seafood

Maine Seafood Company Shut Down For Food Safety Violations

February 14, 2016 — A high-end Hancock seafood company has been shut down for repeated unsanitary conditions and food safety violations, including manufacturing in the presence of rodent excrement, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

U.S. District Judge Jon D. Levy on Friday signed a consent decree of permanent injunction against Mill Stream Corp., which does business as Sullivan Harbor Farm, and its owner, Ira Joel Frantzman.

The action followed more than a decade of warnings to the company by the Food and Drug Administration, which found the company’s smoked fish products were being prepared, packed and held under unsanitary conditions so that the products may have become contaminated with filth or rendered injurious to health, says a complaint filed by the Justice Department in U.S. District Court in Maine.

The company, founded in 1992, has annually made about 75,000 pounds of ready-to-eat smoked fish and fishery products, such as smoked salmon, trout and char, which are sold across the country. Customers include Legal Sea Foods in Boston and Dean & DeLuca of New York. The company’s smoked fish products have received a number of food industry awards.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

That fish is Smokin’

October 20, 2015 — Cultures have been smoking fish from the beginning of recorded history.  From Ireland to Egypt to China, preserved fish has been enjoyed worldwide.  Today smoked fish is still enjoyed in America, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Scandinavia, Eastern Europe and Russia.

At first, smoking was a necessary preserving technique.  Then, it became a part of the cuisine.  The process can be accomplished either by adding smoke or salt to thinly sliced pieces. Adding salt removes the water, drying the fish.  Bacteria hate dry smokey fish.

The Torry Kiln, invented in Scotland, revolutionized the smoked fish industry.  The oven uses air flow to regulate temperature and smoke application.  With a short exposure to room temperatures, bacteria has less of a chance of ruining the product.  Greater quantities of fish can be processed.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard -Times