Natural Seafood Extract
Natural seafood extract is a concentrated savoury ingredient obtained by cooking or enzymatically hydrolysing fish, shellfish or crustacean tissue in water and evaporating the liquor to a paste or powder. Typical raw materials are anchovy, bonito, scallop, clam, oyster, shrimp and crab, including the cooking waters and trimmings generated by canning and surimi operations.
Its taste comes from a distinctive amino acid pattern. Glycine and alanine give the sweetness characteristic of shellfish, glutamate supplies umami, and 5'-adenylate rather than inosinate is the dominant nucleotide in molluscs and crustaceans. Betaine, taurine and small peptides contribute the marine background note, while the volatile fraction carries the cooked seafood aroma that a compounded flavour alone reproduces poorly.
The material is a light to mid brown paste at around 60 to 75 percent solids, or a hygroscopic powder spray dried onto maltodextrin or salt. It dissolves in hot water, holds up through retort processing, and is more prone than meat extracts to developing fishy oxidation notes if fat is not removed and packaging is not oxygen tight.
We source bulk Natural Seafood Extract from top China manufacturers for our partners. The manufacturer is in Guangdong. 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.
or call +86-21-6858 0751
- Function
- Plant extract
Specifications
| Item | Specification |
|---|---|
| Appearance | Light brown to brown free flowing powder |
| Odour and Taste | Characteristic cooked seafood, savoury and slightly sweet |
| Total Nitrogen (dry basis) | ≥ 8.0% |
| Amino Nitrogen | ≥ 3.0% |
| Protein (N x 6.25) | ≥ 50.0% |
| Fat | ≤ 2.0% |
| Sodium Chloride | ≤ 8.0% |
| Loss on Drying | ≤ 6.0% |
| Total Ash | ≤ 15.0% |
| Histamine | ≤ 50 mg/kg |
| Lead | ≤ 1.0 mg/kg |
| Arsenic (inorganic) | ≤ 0.5 mg/kg |
| Cadmium | ≤ 1.0 mg/kg |
| Total Plate Count | ≤ 10,000 cfu/g |
| Yeast and Mould | ≤ 100 cfu/g |
| E. coli | Negative |
| Salmonella | Absent in 25 g |
Common Markets Grades
Grades follow the source species, since scallop, oyster, shrimp, crab and fish extracts each have a different taste profile and are quoted separately. Within a species the specification is written around total nitrogen, amino nitrogen, sodium chloride and free amino acid content, with the amino nitrogen figure indicating the depth of enzymatic hydrolysis. Products built on cooking water from canning lines run lower in nitrogen than those made from whole meat.
Physical grades cover paste in pails and drums, spray dried powder at around 95 percent solids, and defatted liquid concentrate for clear broth applications. Low sodium versions are made for salt reduced formulations, and low histamine grades with a specified limit are required where scombroid species such as anchovy and tuna are the feedstock. Halal certified production is common.
Applications
- Seafood soup and broth bases, including dashi style stocks and chowder preparations
- Instant noodle sachets in seafood variants, where the powder must dissolve in boiling water quickly
- Oyster sauce, fish sauce blends and Asian style seasoning sauces, providing marine depth
- Surimi products such as crab sticks and fish balls, where it restores the taste lost during washing of the mince
- Seafood flavoured snack seasonings applied topically to crisps and extruded snacks
- Retort and canned seafood soups, where it survives sterilisation without flattening
- Prepared rice and noodle meals, giving a shellfish background at low dosage
- Compounded flavour formulations, used as the natural base under a top note of aroma chemicals
- Aquaculture feed and pet food palatants, where free amino acids and betaine drive feeding response
China Manufacturers of Natural Seafood Extract
Top Natural Seafood Extract 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 seafood extract is a food ingredient derived from fish and shellfish rather than a food additive, and no additive regulation or E number applies. Manufacture and import fall under the Food and Drug Administration seafood programme, which requires a HACCP plan covering histamine control for scombrotoxin forming species, and the finished ingredient must be declared with its species name so that crustacean, mollusc and fish allergen labelling is triggered correctly.
In the European Union the material is a fishery product of animal origin governed by Regulation 853/2004 on specific hygiene rules, and imports must come from an approved establishment in a listed third country with the correct health certificate. Fish, crustaceans and molluscs are all named allergens under the food information regulation, so declaration is mandatory. Codex has no commodity standard for seafood extract, but the Codex standard on fish and fishery products and the general contaminant standard set the reference points for histamine, cadmium and mercury.
Manufacturing Process
Chilled or frozen seafood raw material, whole trimmings or the cooking water from a canning line, is minced and charged to a jacketed vessel with water. A food grade protease is added at controlled temperature and pH and held for several hours, breaking muscle protein down to peptides and free amino acids, then inactivated by heating to 90 degrees Celsius or above. Shells and bones are separated at this point. Some traditional lines omit the enzyme and rely on long open boiling instead.
The hydrolysate is separated on a decanter centrifuge, defatted on a disc centrifuge, and clarified by plate or membrane filtration, with ultrafiltration used where a low molecular weight fraction is specified. Activated carbon treatment removes colour and part of the fishy odour. The clarified liquor is concentrated in a falling film vacuum evaporator at low temperature to protect the aroma, then either filled hot as paste or blended with carrier and spray dried, sieved and packed under a moisture and oxygen barrier.
