Canned and frozen seafood can be used to cut the time it takes to make complex dishes, soups, stews and other dishes. By using high-quality prepared canned seafood and frozen seafood, you can offer the very best to your patrons at a better price and with faster service.
Many restaurants and food service businesses use frozen and canned seafood of some kind in their recipes. Frozen fish products come in all varieties from reputable frozen seafood manufacturers, from canned tuna, crab, shrimp and anchovies to frozen scallops, lobster and salmon. Top canned seafood labels can fill your shelves to make it easier to make quick dishes or to add to more complex ones. When considering what canned and frozen seafoods to use in your business, you should:
1. Decide on the canned and frozen seafood products you would most like to have on hand as ingredients to enhance dishes you make most or that you wouldn't use often enough to keep the ingredients fresh on hand.
2. Find reputable canned and frozen seafood processors and suppliers to keep you stocked while providing top customer service.
3. Buy from specialty frozen and canned seafood manufacturers and suppliers.
Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done
Decide on the canned and frozen seafood products you will stock in your kitchen
There are many types of canned seafood products and frozen seafood products from which to choose in stocking your commercial kitchen. Consider the recipes you use most, the type of menu you are offering and the changes you can make in the way you buy and use ingredients. Contact other restaurants in your area that have similar menus to ask about the quantities they order and what suppliers they recommend.
I recommend: SYSCO is one of the largest and most well-known marketers and distributors of both canned and frozen foods for restaurants and other food service businesses. They also distribute their own label canned and frozen seafood, or those by top canned food brands.
Foodservice.com offers canned and frozen seafood reports detailing what canned and frozen foods are selling best and which are not selling as quickly. You can also outline different areas of the country and the different canned and frozen foods sold across the US.
Find specialty canned and frozen seafood companies for ethnic or other special niche businesses
If you've decided to open an ethnic restaurant or a casual seafood shack -- a place that has a very specialized and limited menu -- you can use specialized canned seafood companies or frozen seafood to enhance your dishes. In food businesses such as these, you will be making a lot of the same things -- fish tacos in a Mexican eatery or fish and chips in a seafood shack. Buy your frozen seafood wholesale to save money.
I recommend: Trident Seafoods, located in Seattle, Washington, offers 280 food service seafood products. They also offer Alaska seafood products and a selection of canned seafood products available through their online store or with your standard order.
Whitney & Sons Seafoods, located in Central Florida, supplies fresh and frozen seafood including clams, crab, shrimp and in all prep methods including chopped, sliced, cleaned and ready to cook.
Find canned and frozen seafood suppliers
Consider the specialty seafoods you may want to offer and order them from a frozen seafood company and give your customers the very best.
I recommend: Wild Planet prides themselves on offering top of the line canned seafood products, including those with low mercury and fancy fillet and smoked varieties.
Gourmet Chef Packers has high quality frozen lobster and crab offered in a variety of ways, including cocktail claws, whole, split and many others.
Tips & Tactics
Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide
- Watch your canned and frozen seafood inventory closely the first couple of weeks. By immediately noticing trends and adjusting orders accordingly, you can save money and reduce spoilage.
- Always remember the "last in, last out" theory of food inventory management. Buy an industrial sized can organizer (like the kind canned food companies use to stock soup on store shelves) that allows canned goods to roll out toward the front from the back where you will load them. Also put newly received frozen food behind older food to encourage you and your staff to always be pulling the oldest food out for use.
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