4 reasons why fresh seafood is more expensive than other foods

Yes when you eat out in restaurants and fresh market food places, you probably notice that fresh seafood served in dishes are much more expensive than meat and other portions in the menu. Whatever the cooking type is, fresh seafood always costs higher. Shrimps, crabs, squids, oysters, fish and whatsoever kind of seafood there may be, they are tasty and pricey.

Even when you go to the market yourself or check out fresh seafood markets online, you will see that their prices are no joke compared to other food.

Have you been wondering why? Do you have an idea? To help you understand more, here are 4 reasons that explain what’s the behind fresh seafood’s  great expense.

[1] ACQUIRING FRESH SEAFOOD

Catching fish is a difficult task. It requires a lot of preparations and well-planned strategies before heading out to the ocean. The chances of getting a lot are also unsure because the fishermen got no control of the water and the sea creatures in it.

From the harvesting, even if it’s a bit unsuccessful, of course, money is given out for the continuation of the work. Even if the caught seafood is not enough, definitely the fishermen must be paid. This goes to show that the costs really go up especially when that happens since there’s a need for the work to be maintained, hoping that the next attempts will be rewarding.

Fresh seafood is not the same with domesticated animals grown for food purposes. For those such as cows, pigs, cattles, etc., they can be confined within a certain area waiting and getting ready for harvesting time. Unless a lake or an inland sea is part of your owned properties, you can. If not, fishermen must manually do the work out there on their fishing boats into the ocean.

Certain kinds of fish and other fresh seafood are hard to catch especially because of their movements and sizes as well. When they go low, the nets have to go low too, and fishermen need extra effort and backup plans for any unforeseen circumstances of fishing difficulties.

There, come to think of how costly acquiring seafood is, and you’ll realise that it really deserves the price hanging on it.

[2] CRUCIAL PROCESSING

The process of preparing to cooking fresh seafood must be done well. For fillet dishes, there must be a specific factory that professionally specializes in eliminating unnecessary parts. The tails, heads, scales are to be removed to clean the seafood.

Since any stinky fish smell and unwanted slippery texture must be terminated, the cleaning process of fresh seafood should be thorough. Also, restaurants must ensure that what they serve is indubitably fresh, so they need extra quality control for those seafood. Many mishaps can happen if customers are fed with staled (not fresh) and they could be health-related.  

[3] LOGISTICS COSTS

Shipping seafood goes through several steps different from those of doing so for meat. The packaging also is another important concern since fresh seafood needs to be well-kept to maintain freshness even when traveled to and from vast distances. Gel packs, wet ice and styrofoam packaging are some of the securing options which add to the high prices but surely guarantees the proper shipment of the seafood.

[4] FRESHNESS INDEED

Finally, fresh seafood is expensive because sellers are very sure that they’re indeed fresh. When it’s fresh and of amazing quality, expect that it’s not cheap. Freshness is somehow considered rare and difficult to find, so when found, it costs a lot.

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FRESH SEAFOOD IT IS

Fresh seafood is valuable for reasonable reasons. With proper cooking, you can surely enjoy it for what it tastes and for what it’s worth.