Frozen Krill
Frozen krill is whole Antarctic krill, Euphausia superba, a small pelagic crustacean of the Southern Ocean, caught and frozen at sea as the raw material for krill oil, krill meal and krill protein rather than being landed as a table seafood.
The animal grows to around six centimetres and is nutritionally distinctive on several counts. Its lipid fraction, roughly 3 to 8 percent of the wet weight depending on season, carries eicosapentaenoic and docosahexaenoic acid bound largely into phospholipids rather than triglycerides, which is the basis of the krill oil market, and it is coloured by astaxanthin, which is present in the intact animal and acts as a natural antioxidant for those fatty acids. Protein makes up some 12 to 15 percent of the wet weight and is well balanced in amino acids.
The processing constraint that defines the trade is autolysis. Krill carry exceptionally active digestive proteases and phospholipases, and once the animal dies those enzymes break down the muscle protein and cleave the phospholipids within hours, so the catch has to be frozen, cooked or processed almost immediately on board. Frozen krill is therefore sold as blocks or as individually quick frozen whole animals produced on the catching vessel, held at deep freeze temperature and specified on the time from net to freezer as much as on composition. Fluoride, which concentrates in the shell, is the other parameter that decides how the material can be used.
We source bulk Frozen Krill from top China manufacturers for our partners. The manufacturer is in Jiangsu. 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
- Nutraceutical
Specifications
| Item | Specification |
|---|---|
| Appearance | Whole pink to reddish krill, frozen in blocks |
| Species Identification | Euphausia superba |
| Time from Catch to Freezing | Not more than 2 hours |
| Storage Temperature | Minus 18 C or colder |
| Crude Protein | Not less than 12.0% |
| Total Lipid | Not less than 3.0% |
| Astaxanthin | Not less than 20 mg/kg |
| Peroxide Value, on extracted lipid | Not more than 5.0 meq/kg |
| Fluoride, whole animal | Not more than 2,500 mg/kg dry basis |
| Total Volatile Basic Nitrogen | Not more than 35 mg/100 g |
| Lead | Not more than 0.5 mg/kg |
| Cadmium | Not more than 0.5 mg/kg |
| Mercury | Not more than 0.5 mg/kg |
| Salmonella | Absent in 25 g |
Common Markets Grades
The trade separates by how quickly and how the catch was handled. Frozen whole krill in blocks is the commodity form, graded on the interval between capture and freezing, on the extent of autolysis measured through free amino nitrogen or peroxide value, and on the season of capture, since lipid content varies through the year. Individually quick frozen krill is specified for uses where whole intact animals are needed.
Beyond whole frozen material the same catch is processed into a set of related grades: cooked and frozen krill, peeled krill meat, krill meal produced by cooking, pressing and drying on board, hydrolysed krill protein, and krill oil extracted from the meal and specified on total phospholipid, on eicosapentaenoic and docosahexaenoic acid content and on astaxanthin. Feed grade krill meal and aquaculture grades are traded on protein and on the astaxanthin figure with looser limits than the food and supplement grades. Certification of the fishery, most commonly through a sustainable fisheries scheme, and the catch documentation required by the Southern Ocean management framework accompany commercial lots.
Applications
- Krill oil manufacture, the principal outlet, where the phospholipid bound omega-3 fraction is extracted
- Krill meal production for aquaculture feed, valued as both a protein source and a feeding attractant
- Salmon and shrimp farming, where the astaxanthin content contributes to flesh pigmentation
- Krill protein hydrolysate for supplements and for flavour and palatant use
- Astaxanthin recovery as a natural carotenoid stream alongside the oil
- Peeled krill meat for surimi, seafood pastes and prepared seafood products
- Pet food and aquarium feed, where whole frozen krill is used directly
- Enzyme recovery, since the krill proteases themselves have industrial and clinical applications
- Sport fishing bait, a long established use for the frozen block form
China Manufacturers of Frozen Krill
Top Frozen Krill 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
Fishing itself is the first regulatory layer. The Antarctic krill fishery is managed by the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources, which sets catch limits by area, requires vessel licensing, observer coverage and catch reporting, and issues the documentation that accompanies product into export markets. Buyers routinely require that documentation along with third party sustainability certification.
In the United States, krill and krill products are seafood regulated under the FDA seafood HACCP rules and the Food Safety Modernization Act, with crustacean shellfish being a major allergen under the Food Allergen Labelling and Consumer Protection Act, so krill and any ingredient derived from it must carry that declaration. Krill oil is sold as a dietary ingredient under the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act, and several krill oil preparations have been the subject of GRAS notifications for defined food uses.
In the European Union, krill is a fishery product handled under the food hygiene regulations for products of animal origin, requiring approved vessel and establishment status and traceability, and crustaceans are Annex II allergens under the food information regulation. Krill oil was assessed and authorised as a novel food, with the Union list setting its specification and permitted conditions of use, and the contaminants regulation sets limits for heavy metals and dioxins in fishery products and marine oils. Codex addresses the material through its standard and code of practice for fish and fishery products rather than through a JECFA additive specification.
Manufacturing Process
Krill are taken by mid-water trawl in the Southern Ocean, increasingly with continuous pumping systems that draw the catch aboard through a hose while the net stays in the water, which shortens the interval between capture and processing to minutes rather than hours. That interval is the single most important variable in the process, because the animal's own enzymes begin degrading the protein and phospholipid immediately after death.
On board the catch is washed and screened to remove by-catch and debris, then split between routes. For frozen whole product it goes directly to plate or blast freezers, sometimes after a brief cook that denatures the digestive enzymes and stops autolysis, and is frozen into blocks or as individual animals before transfer to the vessel's cold store at deep freeze temperature. For meal, the krill is cooked in a steam cooker, pressed to remove liquor, and dried in low temperature dryers, with the press liquor decanted, its oil separated and the stickwater concentrated and returned to the meal. Peeling lines separate shell from meat where a peeled product is wanted, which also removes the bulk of the fluoride, since that element concentrates in the exoskeleton. Frozen and meal products are landed at a transhipment port and moved in refrigerated containers, and the oil is later extracted from the meal on shore using ethanol or supercritical carbon dioxide.
