Shrimp Shrimp are crustaceans (a form of shellfish) with elongated bodies and a primarily swimming mode of locomotion – most commonly Caridea and Dendrobranchiata of the decapod order, although some crustaceans outside of this order are refer ...

are

marketed Marketing is the process of exploring, creating, and delivering value to meet the needs of a target market in terms of goods and services; potentially including selection of a target audience; selection of certain attributes or themes to empha ...

and commercialised with several issues in mind. Most shrimp are sold frozen and marketed based on their categorisation of presentation, grading, colour, and uniformity.

Presentation

The main forms of presentation are ''head-on shell on'' (''HOSO''), ''shell-on'' (''SO'' or "green headless shrimp"), ''peeled tail on'' (''PTO''), ''peeled undeveined'' (''PUD''), ''peeled and deveined'' (''P&D''), ''peeled deveined and tail on deveined'' (''PDTO'') and ''butterfly tail'' on (''BTTY-TO''). Sometimes a letter 'F' is placed in front of these abbreviations for the presentation in order to state that the shrimp comes from a farm (example: FSO – farmed, shell on). European and Asian markets prefer the HOSO presentation (which is a whole shrimp), while the American shrimp market prefers the remaining presentations.

Grading

Shrimp are graded according to their count per weight. HOSO shrimps are graded in units per

kilogram The kilogram (also kilogramme) is the unit of mass in the International System of Units (SI), having the unit symbol kg. It is a widely used measure in science, engineering and commerce worldwide, and is often simply called a kilo colloquially ...

(30/40, 40/50, 50/60, etc. pcs/kg). The standard pack is in a 2 kg box, 10 boxes into a master carton. The remaining presentations are graded in units per pound (U15, 16/20, 21/25, 26/30, 31/35, 36/40, 41/50, etc. pcs/ lb). The standard pack is in a 5 lb box, 10 boxes into a master carton. The numbers in the grading code indicate maximum and minimum quantity of pieces per unit weight, with U standing for "under".

Color

HOSO shrimp are also graded according to their colour, with A1 being the lightest colour and A5 the darkest colour. Shrimp tend to take on the colour of their

habitat In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species habitat can be seen as the physical ...

, so sandy ponds tend to yield an A1 colour shrimp, and shrimp ponds with plastic black liners tend to yield A5 colour shrimp. A2–A3 colour shrimp are preferred for fresh commercialisation, and A4–A5 colour shrimp are preferred for cooked commercialisation. The other presentations are not usually graded by colour.

Uniformity

Another concept to grade is the uniformity. This is measured by visually selecting the ten largest and the ten smallest pieces from 1 kg of product. The two groups are then weighed separately and the weight of the large pieces group is divided by the weight of the small pieces group. The result is the uniformity factor. Normally the maximum accepted value for the uniformity factor is 1.5.

References

{{fisheries and fishing Fish products sales

Presentation

Grading

Color

Uniformity

See also

References