Seafood Processor Abbreviations

This is a short list of abbreviations we have found searching seafood processor listings. Please contact us with additional abbreviations that we may add to this seafood processor abbreviations list. Add new seafood processor abbreviations.

A

B

• Battered - Product is covered, usually with egg or flour and partially cooked prior to freezing.
• B/F-Block Frozen - Blocks are uniformly shaped masses of cohering fish fillets or a mixture of fillets and minced fish flesh, or entirely minced fish flesh ranging in weight from 13 to 16 lbs. intended for further processing into fish sticks and portions. Larger blocks may contain whole dressed fish for subsequent thawing, processing or resale.
  1. Block-Boned/Boneless - Product has been processed to remove backbone and rib bones.
  2. Fillet block - Product skinless fillets
  3. H&G block - Product headed and gutted
  4. Mince block - Product minced fish flesh
  5. Piece block - Product chunks/pieces
• Breaded - Product is covered in breadcrumbs and seasonings.
• Brine Freezing - Freezing seafood by soaking in liquid brine.
• Bushel - Measure equal to 8 gallons or 32-quart capacity.
• Butterfly Fillet - Fish is cut along both sides with the two pieces remaining joined by the skin of the back.
• Butterfly Shrimp - Peeled and deveined shrimp with the shell left on the last (tail) segment.

C

• Candling - Skin is removed by an automated skinner. After skinning the fillets, the flesh is run by bright lights and inspected for defects.
• Cocktail claw - Claws from a crab with part of the shell removed to expose the meat.
• Croquettes - Patties containing a mixture of breading or breadcrumbs or other binder, usually at least 35% seafood, such as combination of fish and crabmeat.
• CPND - Cooked, Peeled & Deveined
• CPTO - Cooked Peeled Tail On
• Curing - Using salt or sugar to draw moisture from the flesh of fish, also used to enhance flavor.
• Custom Cut - Irregularly shaped triangle cut from a block of frozen fish.

D

• DWT - Dressed Headless Without Tail
• Dressed Fish - Completely cleaned, but with head on (head removed is usually called pan-dressed). Catfish - deheaded, eviscerated and skinned. Dressed in NZ commonly refers to a HG or HGT fish which has the head cut which carries further back, the angle is more severe into the belly ( giving lower H&G recovery ) also known as a J cut, for red fish etc.

E

• Ex-vessel Price - Price received by fishermen for fish, shellfish and other aquatic plants and animals landed at the dock.

F

• Fancy - Crab sandwich-style mix of leg and shoulder/body meat.
• FAS - Frozen At Sea
• Fillet - A slice of fish flesh of irregular size and shape that is removed by a cut made parallel to the backbone.
• Fillet - Fillet with the nugget (belly flap attached to it.)
• Fillets skinless belly flap off
• Fillets skinless belly flap on
• Fillets skinless boneless
• Fillets skinless bone in
• Fillets skin on belly flap on
• Fillets skin on belly flap off
• Fillets skin on boneless
• Fillets skin on bone in
• Fingers - Irregular-shaped pieces of fish, similar to a long, thin fillet, breaded or battered, raw or pre-cooked, usually machine cut from fish block, then coated and fried.
• Fletch - Large boneless fillet of halibut, swordfish or tuna.
• FOB/FOT - Free on board/Free on truck. Charges beyond the termination point are the buyer's responsibility.

G

• GG - Gilled and gutted. Completely cleaned, but with head on.
• GGS - Gilled, Gutted, Scaled
• Glaze - Protective coating of ice on frozen product, used to prevent dehydration.
• Groundfish - Fish caught on or near the sea floor. The term usually applies to cod, cusk, haddock, hake, pollock and Atlantic ocean perch.

H

• H+G - Headed and Gutted
• HGT - Headed, Gutted, Tail-off
• HOSO - Head-On Shell-On
• HLSO - Headless Shell-On
• H/O - Head-on
• H/L - Headless

I

• INTL - Interleaved
• IQF - Individually Quick Frozen
• IWP - Individually Poly-Wrapped

J

• J - Cut - Trimming a fillet removing both the nape and pinbones.

K

• Kirimi - Take the head and tail off, leave in the guts (called kirimi), and then freeze the fish or portion cut from a fillet, then tempura fried.
• Kg, Kilo, Kilogram - Metric weight equivalent to 2.2046 lbs. Imported product is often sold by the kilogram.
• Kipper - To cure (herring, salmon, etc.) by cleaning, salting and drying or smoking.

L

• Layer Pack - Product, usually fillets, put into a carton in layers with a sheet of polyethylene between each layer of product.
• Logs - Dressed headless without the tail or D.W.T.
• Loin - The boneless portion cut lengthwise from either side of the backbone of a large, round-bodied fish.
• Lox - Smoked salmon.

M

• Merus - Crab all legs.
• Molting - The shedding of the exoskeleton of crustaceans, allowing for new growth.

N

• Net Weight - The weight of product less the amount of packing material or glaze.
• Nugget - The belly flap of a fish, usually removed manually from the fillet.

O

• Ocean Run - Industry term for a pack of random weight and size products. Catchweight, or random weight ctns.

P

• Pasteurizing - A process (usually heating) to kill most pathogenic organisms, reduce the total microbial flora, and inactivate enzymes (indirectly).
• Precooked - Portion that has been cooked or partially cooked, so the product requires only heating or minimal cooking prior to consumption.
• Pinbones - Fine bones found along the middle of fillets.
• P&D - Peeled and deveined
• PUD - Peeled Undeveined
• PB/I - Pin Bone In
• PBI - Pin Bone In
• PBO - Pin Bone Out
• PND - Peeled & Deveined
• PTO - Peeled Tail On
• PPV - Peeled Pull Veined

Q

R

• RHSO - Raw Headless Shell On
• RPD - Raw Peeled & Deveined
• RPTO - Raw Peeled Tail On

S

• Salad - Crab bricks of shoulder/body meat.
• Scampi - Another name for large shrimp, usually about 1 oz. or larger. Outside the U.S., the term is also applied to lobster. Also a method of preparation, usually with shrimp, that includes butter and garlic.
• Sections - The three walking legs and one claw on one side of king, snow or Dungeness crab, all attached at the shoulder.
• Shank fillet - Fillet where the nugget has been removed.
• Shatterpack - A box of frozen fish fillets separated by interleaved polyethylene sheets. Dropping the box, "shattering" the pack, can separate fillets.
• Skinned - Some species of fish are skinned rather than dressed, such as catfish and eels.
• Snap-and-eats - Crab legs that have been scored to allow them to be broken easily during eating..
• S/O - scale off
• Splits - Crab legs that have been split in half length-wise exposing the meat.
• Steak - Slices of dressed fish smaller than chunks. They yield an edible portion of about 86% to 92%. They are ready for cooking.
• Stuffed Fish - Whole dressed fish which are stuffed with dressing/stuffing before cooking.
• Surimi (Japanese for formed fish) is frozen minced fish which is produced from Skinless fishes such as Alaska Pollock, Hake, Pacific Blue Whiting, Threadfin Beam and etc. In Southeast Asia, the overwhelming majority of Surimi Raw Material comes from Threadfin Beam, Big Eye, Ponyfish, Lizard, Yellow Goatfish and Red Mullet.

T

• Tails - Fish portion that resembles the tail of a fish, boneless, usually breaded or batter-dipped, raw or precooked. The term is also applied to shrimp and spiny lobster with reference to their meaty tail sections.
• Tempura Batter - A light Japanese-style batter.
• Ton - In international seafood sales, usually refers to a metric ton (2,205 lbs.).

U

V

W

• Wheels - Straight cuts across a whole fish.
• Whole or Round Fish - Fish sold just as they come from the water. They must be dressed before cooking.

X

Y

• Yield - The percentage of a fish that is edible or sellable.

Z