Australia sets sights on "ready-to-eat" seafood

Australian seafood producers are finding new opportunities in re-packaged fresh and "ready to eat" fish and seafood meals that can be sold through delis and supermarkets.

 

Improved packaging technology is opening up new seafood markets and providing premium pricing opportunities for Australian seafood exporters, said Bernard Leveau from the international packaging and equipment company, Multivac during a recent seafood conference in South Australia.

 

Speaking at a conference convened by the Australian Seafood research centre and SA Food Centre, Leveau, from France, said the European and US markets and more lately in Australia, were increasingly turning to easy, ready to eat and cook meals, and seafood was favoured for its health benefits.

 

He said new packaging technologies allowed producers to meet demand with products offering improved hygiene, extend shelf life, conserved colour and flavour, greater storage and marketing options and premium prices.

 

However, successfully getting products from the sea to supermarket shelves around the world remained challenging, he noted.

 

Professor Harry Lovell of the Australian Institute of Packaging shared his sights on extended shelf-life, discussing a move towards natural antioxidants to reduce micro-organisms during packaging, new methods to reassure consumers about product freshness, and a smart microwave that reads product barcodes to calculate precise cooking times.

 

Lovell also highlighted the trend of packaging that is easy to open, which he noted was an issue for consumers with a staggering 64,000 people hurting themselves opening packaged products in one year.

 

Another area Lovell said was under serviced and ripe for increasing market share was caused by generational change, the small and single family market which wants smaller packaged options.

 

Lorena Bailey, from Angelakis Bros research and development team, who was at the workshop, said Angelakis was one of only a few seafood processors nationally already selling fresh ready to cook seafood products through supermarkets in modified atmosphere retail packs.

 

Undoubtedly, these kinds of products are made more accessible to consumers through supermarkets chains despite complicated processing requirements, said Bailey. Moreover, ready to eat cooked seafood support longer shelf-life and in turn wider access to markets and more efficient management of raw materials.