Brine Shrimp
Brine shrimp, in the savoury ingredient trade, is small shrimp preserved in salt brine and used as a raw material for shrimp derived seasonings rather than as a shrimp eaten whole. The catch is typically the small coastal species landed in large volumes and too small to sell as peeled shrimp, which are salted at high inclusion immediately after landing so that they keep without refrigeration. The same English name is also applied to Artemia, the hypersaline crustacean farmed for aquaculture feed, which is a different material with no seasoning use.
Preserved this way, the shrimp continues to change. Its own digestive enzymes and a halotolerant microflora break the muscle protein down into peptides and free amino acids, so the material develops the concentrated marine umami that makes it valuable, along with the trimethylamine and sulphur notes that give shrimp seasonings their characteristic pungency. Salt at twenty to thirty percent controls that process and prevents spoilage.
It ships in drums or pails as a wet salted mass, pink to greyish brown, with free brine present, and it is dosed by weight into a downstream process rather than used directly. It is not soluble; the soluble savoury fraction is released by grinding, further fermentation or hot water extraction.
We source bulk Brine Shrimp from top China manufacturers for our partners. The manufacturer is in Shandong. A smaller requirement can ship in a combined container with other ingredients.
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- Function
- Flavours and Aromas
Specifications
| Item | Specification |
|---|---|
| Appearance | Pink to greyish brown salted shrimp mass with free brine, free from sand and weed |
| Odour | Characteristic salted shrimp, free from putrid or ammoniacal notes |
| Moisture | 60 percent maximum |
| Salt as sodium chloride | 20 to 30 percent |
| Total nitrogen, dry basis | 7.0 percent minimum |
| Amino acid nitrogen, dry basis | 1.0 percent minimum |
| Foreign matter including shell and sand | 1.0 percent maximum |
| pH | 6.5 to 8.0 |
| Histamine | 200 mg per kg maximum |
| Cadmium | 0.5 mg per kg maximum |
| Lead | 0.5 mg per kg maximum |
| Arsenic, inorganic | 0.5 mg per kg maximum |
| Total plate count | 100000 cfu per gram maximum |
| E. coli | Absent in 1 gram |
| Salmonella | Absent in 25 grams |
Common Markets Grades
Grades are set by species and size of the shrimp, by salt content and by how far fermentation has been allowed to proceed. Freshly salted material with a high salt level and little breakdown is bought by processors who want to control the fermentation themselves, while partly matured material carries a higher amino nitrogen figure and a stronger aroma at delivery. Salt is declared as a percentage and is the figure that decides both the shelf life and how much of the material a formulator can use before the salt budget of the finished seasoning is exhausted.
Beyond the wet salted form, the same raw material is traded dried, either sun dried or hot air dried after salting, and as the pastes and sauces made from it. Cleaned grades have been washed and screened to remove sand, shell fragments and bycatch, while unwashed grades are cheaper and are used where the material will be filtered later. Histamine controlled grades are specified where the finished product carries a tight limit, since the same enzymatic breakdown that produces flavour also produces biogenic amines.
Applications
- Shrimp paste manufacture, as the fermenting substrate that is ground, matured and pressed into blocks
- Shrimp sauce and fish sauce style condiments, drawn off as the liquid fraction of a long salt fermentation
- Savoury seafood flavour production, extracted in hot water and concentrated into a shrimp extract
- Hot pot and dipping sauce bases in regional Chinese cooking, where fermented shrimp is a defining note
- Kimchi and pickled vegetable production, added as the salted seafood component that drives the fermentation
- Instant noodle and soup seasoning sachets, in the form of extract or dried powder
- Snack seasoning dusts requiring a marine savoury note
- Surimi and fish cake seasoning, reinforcing the shrimp character of imitation products
- Pet food palatants, a significant outlet for the lower grades and for processing residues
China Manufacturers of Brine Shrimp
Top Brine Shrimp 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
Salted shrimp is a fishery product rather than a food additive, so it carries no E number. In the United States it falls under the seafood hazard analysis requirements in 21 CFR Part 123, which cover histamine and pathogen control in the handling of raw fishery products, and crustacean shellfish is a major food allergen requiring declaration. Imported consignments are subject to the import controls that apply to seafood, and sulphite treatment used on some shrimp to control black spot must be declared where residues remain above the labelling threshold.
In the European Union fishery product establishments must be approved under the hygiene rules for products of animal origin, consignments require the corresponding health certification and catch documentation, and the contaminant framework sets limits for heavy metals in crustaceans, with cadmium the practical constraint. Crustaceans are a declarable allergen and sulphites above the usual threshold must also be declared. Codex covers the material through its standards and codes of practice for fish and fishery products, its standard for salted fish and its guidance on histamine control, rather than through a commodity standard for salted shrimp.
Manufacturing Process
Small shrimp are landed, screened over vibrating sieves to remove sand, weed and larger bycatch, and washed in seawater or brine. Salt is mixed through the catch on the vessel or at a shoreside station within hours, at a rate that brings the total salt to roughly a quarter of the mass, and the salted shrimp is packed into drums or concrete tanks. The speed of that first salting determines the quality of everything downstream, because histamine forming bacteria act quickly on shrimp muscle at ambient temperature.
The salted mass is then held for weeks to months while the shrimp's own proteases and halotolerant bacteria hydrolyse the protein. Where the destination is shrimp paste, the material is ground, spread to dry partially in the sun, reground and repacked to mature further before being pressed into blocks. Where the destination is a savoury extract, the salted shrimp is instead extracted with hot water in a batch or countercurrent extractor, and the liquor is screened, centrifuged to remove shell and oil, concentrated under vacuum and either filled as a paste or spray dried on a carrier. Shell and solid residue from either route goes to feed or to chitin recovery. Lots are released against salt, moisture, nitrogen, histamine and microbiological testing.
