Fish products
Fish products are foods and commercial materials made from fish, including whole fish, preserved foods, extracts, oils, and processed ingredients.
Fish: Aquatic vertebrates with gills and, usually, fins that include thousands of species. Fish are the raw biological material behind every product in this category.
Freezing: Preservation by lowering temperature until water in a product forms ice and microbial growth slows. Freezing is widely used to stabilize fish while retaining much of its original form.
Surimi: A washed, minced fish-protein paste used as a base for molded seafood products. Surimi shows how fish can be transformed into standardized products such as imitation crab.
Seafood industry: The global network that harvests, farms, processes, distributes, and sells aquatic foods. Fish products are a major part of this broader commercial system.
Fish processing: The preparation of fish for consumption or commerce through handling, preservation, and transformation. Processing determines whether fish is sold fresh, preserved, or converted into ingredients.
Canning: Food preservation in sealed containers by heat treatment that destroys spoilage organisms and pathogens. Canning makes fish shelf-stable by combining sealed packaging with heat processing.
Fish sauce: A salty, fermented liquid condiment made from fish and salt. Fish sauce is a widely used product whose flavor develops during extended fermentation.
Bycatch: Animals caught unintentionally during fishing operations targeting other species. Bycatch can enter markets as fish products, while also raising management and ecological concerns.
Fish preservation: Methods that slow spoilage in fish, including chilling, freezing, salting, drying, smoking, and canning. Preservation methods create many of the product forms sold beyond fresh fish.
Smoking (food): Food processing that exposes food to smoke, often adding flavor while also aiding preservation. Smoking gives fish characteristic flavor and can reduce spoilage when paired with salting or drying.