Anchovy Paste
Anchovy paste is a salt cured fish condiment made by grinding matured, heavily salted anchovy into a smooth spreadable emulsion, usually with edible oil and sometimes a little vinegar, sugar or spice. The salting and maturation stage allows the fish's own proteases and halotolerant bacteria to break the muscle protein down into free amino acids and short peptides, which is what gives the paste its glutamate driven umami and its ability to add savoury depth without tasting of fish.
The product is a soft brown to reddish brown paste packed in tubes, jars or bulk pails, with 12 to 20 percent salt acting as the primary preservative. It is not water soluble in the true sense; it disperses into warm liquids and emulsifies readily into fats, dressings and butters. High salt content and low water activity make the paste shelf stable unopened, and refrigeration after opening controls surface oxidation and darkening rather than microbial growth.
Flavour intensity depends on how long the fish was matured, so paste from a longer cure is darker, more aromatic and used at lower dosage.
We source bulk Anchovy Paste from top China manufacturers for our partners. The manufacturer is in Zhejiang. A smaller requirement can ship in a combined container with other ingredients.
Please send the grade you need, the volume and your destination port, and we will come back with a solution and a price.
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- Function
- Flavours and Aromas
Specifications
| Item | Specification |
|---|---|
| Appearance | Smooth brown to reddish brown paste, free from bone fragments |
| Odour and flavour | Characteristic salted anchovy, no rancid or putrid note |
| Anchovy content | 60 percent minimum |
| Salt, as sodium chloride | 12.0 to 18.0 percent |
| Moisture | 50 percent maximum |
| pH | 5.0 to 6.2 |
| Histamine | 200 mg per kg maximum |
| Total volatile basic nitrogen | 100 mg per 100 g maximum |
| Lead | Not more than 0.3 mg per kg |
| Arsenic, inorganic | Not more than 0.5 mg per kg |
| Total plate count | Not more than 10000 cfu per g |
| Yeast and mould | Not more than 100 cfu per g |
| Escherichia coli | Absent in 1 g |
| Salmonella | Absent in 25 g |
Common Markets Grades
Trade grades are set mainly by the fish to salt ratio, the length of maturation and whether the paste is made from whole fish or from filleted and skinned anchovy. Fillet based pastes are lighter in colour and milder; whole fish pastes are darker, stronger and cheaper. Fish content in the declared formula typically runs from about 45 percent in an oil extended retail tube up to 75 percent or more in a concentrated industrial paste intended for dilution in a sauce plant.
Beyond that the market splits into retail tubes with a smooth, fully homogenised texture and industrial pails or drums where a coarser particle size is acceptable. Reduced salt versions exist but rely on refrigerated distribution or an added preservative. Buyers should distinguish anchovy paste from anchovy extract and from fish sauce, which are liquid products drawn off the same cure.
Applications
- Caesar dressing and other emulsified salad dressings, where it supplies the savoury backbone without visible fish
- Worcestershire style sauces and brown table sauces, as the umami and depth component
- Puttanesca, marinara and other tomato based pasta sauces, where it rounds the acidity of the tomato
- Compound butters and herb butters served with grilled meat and fish
- Meat marinades and rubs, where the free glutamate reinforces perceived meatiness in beef and lamb
- Tapenade, aioli and Mediterranean spreads and dips
- Savoury bakery fillings and crackers, as a seasoning paste in laminated and filled products
- Stock and bouillon bases, as a natural umami source alongside yeast extract
- Asian style dipping sauces and kimchi seasonings, where salted anchovy is a traditional element
Brands Using Anchovy Paste
Widely-distributed consumer products that list Anchovy Paste on the ingredient label.
- Roland FoodsAnchovy Paste ↗A 2 oz tube of Spanish anchovy paste whose ingredient list reads anchovies, salt, olive oil and acetic acid.Label verified 2026-08-31
- Roland FoodsAnchovy Paste High Salt ↗A higher salt version of the same paste, made from anchovies, salt and olive oil.Label verified 2026-08-31
- CentoAnchovy Paste in a Tube ↗An Italian anchovy paste made by grinding Adriatic anchovies with sunflower oil, sold in a resealable tube.Label verified 2026-08-31
Brand names, product names and logos are the property of their owners. They appear here as published evidence that the ingredient is used, taken from the brand's own label or website. Their appearance is not an endorsement, and it does not mean the brand buys from us or from any manufacturer listed on this site.
China Manufacturers of Anchovy Paste
Top Anchovy Paste manufacturers in China.
Company names and logos are the property of the manufacturers themselves. They are listed here because our own directory records them as producing this ingredient. A listing is not an endorsement by them, and we do not represent them or speak on their behalf.
Regulatory Status
In the United States anchovy paste is a standardised seafood condiment rather than a food additive, so it is regulated as a food. Processors must operate under the seafood HACCP regulation at 21 CFR Part 123, with histamine and the adequacy of the salting step identified as the principal hazards for salt cured small pelagic fish. The finished product must carry an allergen declaration for fish under the Food Allergen Labelling and Consumer Protection Act, and any added preservative or colour must be one permitted for the food category.
In the European Union the product falls under the food hygiene package, including Regulation (EC) No 852/2004 and Regulation (EC) No 853/2004 for products of animal origin, with histamine sampling criteria set in the microbiological criteria regulation for fish species associated with high histidine. Fish is a named allergen requiring declaration under Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011. Codex Alimentarius maintains a standard for salted fish and a code of practice for fish and fishery products that provide the international reference for cure control and histamine limits.
Manufacturing Process
Fresh anchovy is graded and, depending on the style, either used whole or headed, gutted and filleted. The fish are layered with coarse solar salt in vats or barrels at roughly one part salt to three or four parts fish, weighted, and left to mature for several months at ambient temperature. During this cure the tissue firms, brine forms, and the fish's own cathepsins together with salt tolerant bacteria hydrolyse the muscle protein, developing the amino acid profile and the cured aroma. Liquid drawn off at this stage is the raw material for fish sauce.
Matured fish are removed from the brine, rinsed to adjust the final salt level, and passed through a bone separator and a colloid mill or refiner that reduces the flesh, and in whole fish products the softened bone, to a fine paste. Edible oil, and where the recipe calls for it vinegar, sugar or spice extracts, are blended in under vacuum to limit air incorporation. The paste is pasteurised or hot filled into tubes, jars or pails, seamed, cooled and left for a short time to settle before release.
