Packaging

Abstract

Packaging innovation has been slow to come in the fishing industry. Today a large quantity of seafood is still moved to market essentially unpackaged. Whole or gutted fish are iced in fish holds, deiced, and sorted upon landing, and then reiced in bulk containers to be hauled to local fish markets. At the market, whole, dressed, or filleted fish are displayed and offered for sale (still unpackaged) on a bed of ice. A switch from wooden to waxed or plastic-coated corrugated boxes as the bulk shipping container has been the sole packaging improvement in this marketing scheme, and a folded newspaper remains the most common form of final product protection. Meanwhile, prepackaged meats and poultry have come to dominate the largely fishless self-service meat counters of America’s supermarkets.