What Is Surimi?

“Surimi” concept was first developed in Far Eastern Asia countries. The first mentions of surimi, dated from 1100, were found in Japan. As translated from Japanese “surimi” means “washed minced fish”. Even in those times people noticed that if you mince wet oceanic white-muscle fish, then thoroughly flash and squeeze it out, you obtain the mass with high jellifying capability from which all forms of tasty products can be prepared by processing at low temperatures (80-90С). The most popular products were fish balls or surimi sausages, also known as “kamaboko”. In the course of time, as far as cooking was evolving, Japanese cooks developed new surimi dishes. As an odorless product having no pronounced flavor, surimi made of sea white-muscle fish was used to imitate other products. To do that, various food colors, aromatics and herbs, as well as diverse stuffing were used in surimi products. Over the course of many centuries of this cooking tradition, There now exists in Japan, thousands of variations of surimi products called «kamaboko».
Yet “kamaboko” remained a culinary art over this long period of time. The history of developing industrial production of this product started in Japan only in the 1970s.

Brief history of crab sticks’ industrial production.

The 1970s. The shortage of natural crab meat which is an integral attribute of the national cuisine is increasing in the Japanese market. Crab meat prices are soaring. Guided by traditional Japanese cuisine recipes of cooking “kamaboko”, Japanese cooks are working on recipes of a product to imitate the taste and texture of natural crab meat. The product was called “kani-kamaboko” meaning “fish fillet with crab”. In only a few years the product has not only gained popularity on the domestic market, but has become one of the rare examples of successfully importing traditional Japanese foodstuff to the West. Initially “kani-kamaboko” necessarily contained natural crab meat (not less than 15-20%).

In a short period of time in Japan there have been many new developments and changes in manufacturing technologies required to imitate crab meat as well as other seafood – shrimps’ and lobsters’ tails, scallops and squid. In order to provide raw materials for this industry it was necessary to develop the industrial technology for manufacturing surimi from freshly caught fish. In a short period of time (around 10 years) a whole new industry, with its own equipment manufacturing plants, coastal fish processing factories and a couple of factories producing “kamaboko”, appeared in Japan. Here it should be noted that crab sticks are not the main type of “kamaboko” in Japan.
Further, in the late 70s a lot of “kamaboko” producing factories are built in China, South Korea and other Far Eastern Asia countries.

The 1980s: First “crab sticks” appeared in the French market in the form they are known to our consumers. Other products from the Japanese market had not gained acceptance by Western consumers to match the successes of “crab sticks”. Japanese enterprises were the first exporters. At the same time “crab sticks” gained popularity in the US. Until the end of the 80s as many as 30 factories were built in the US to enable crab sticks’ manufacturing. At the same time, the first Soviet Union factory for the manufacture of crab sticks was built in Murmansk.
In order to provide the world-wide industry with raw materials, coastal and floating factories producing surimi are developing in the US and Canada. The basic industrial species for surimi production are Alaska pollack, hake and whiting.

In 1989, the first factory in Western-Europe, was built for the manufacturer “PROTIMER”, of France. Crab sticks become an industrial product.

The 1990s: Crab sticks and imitations of the main seafood become mass-consumption product in many countries of Western and Eastern Europe. The need for raw materials increases sharply. Because of cutting quotas for cod fish, industrial production of surimi switches over to other sea fish species. Geography of the crab sticks manufacturing covers almost all countries that have enough corresponding resources.
There comes a split in the crab sticks quality. Along with the high-quality products there are products from low price bracket produced with low surimi content, with the use of various fish protein substitutes. It is this product of questionable quality that is imported to the CIS countries from Asia on a massive scale.

In the late 90s several factories for the crab sticks manufacturing were built in CIS: the Viciunai factory in Lithuania, the Makrill in Estonia, the fish processing plant in Saint-Petersburg, the “Sea Castle” in Russia, etc. And 90% of these products were positioned in a low-price segment, and therefore their quality is poor.

2001. In October 2001, the first Ukrainian crab stick manufacturing factory was put into operation in Ilyichevsk, Odessa region. The first products under the “Vodny Mir” brand appeared in the market and were initially positioned into the highest quality segment.

How are surimi and surimi products manufactured

In spite of the fact that our domestic consumers are familiar with crab sticks for more than 20 years, the meaning of the term «surimi» remained unknown to them. At the same time surimi is a basic component of crab sticks.

One of the most widespread stereotypes is that surimi is manufactured using wastes from fish processing, and therefore crab sticks can not be considered as a healthy natural fish product.

Detailed information concerning surimi and the ways of it manufacturing is given below.

Surimi is a concentrated fish protein refined of fats, blood, enzymes and quick-dissolving components of fish meat. Being a pure protein, surimi possesses high jellifying capability and elasticity. Surimi is white, without any pronounced taste and flavor.
Surimi is manufactured only from fillet of fresh-caught oceanic fish of a certain class. Fish should be processed into surimi not later than 6-10 hours after it is caught. Fish fillet should have a low fat content and be of high density, it should be white; there should be no dark flesh, fish fillet percentage should be above the average. That is why not all classes of fish are ideal for the manufacturing of surimi. The best quality surimi is produced of codfishes (Alaska pollack, hake and whiting) as well as of some tropical fish (bream, croaker). Pacific horse mackerel, pilchard, giant squid, spotted tail grinner, etc are also suitable for surimi manufacturing. However, surimi made of these fish classes either possesses less jellifying capability or has a darker color.
During surimi manufacturing fish fillet does not undergo thermal treatment, so all vitamins and microelements of surimi remain intact.

Brief diagram of the manufacturing process.

Stage 1. Fish for surimi is caught in the open sea in fishery zones. Within 6-10 hours after being caught, should be either processed on board a special ship-plant, or delivered for processing to a coastal factory.

Stage 2. Fresh-caught fish is filleted. Skin, heads, bones and insides are sent for fish flour manufacturing. Only fish fillet constitutes the basis for the manufacturing of surimi.

Stage 3. Fish fillet is minced and repeatedly washed in cold pure water. At this stage only insoluble proteins are evolving, which are actually the surimi itself. Soluble proteins, enzymes and fat, received in the course of this process, makes valuable raw material for use in the cosmetic industry.

Stage 4. Then the prepared, washed out mass is taken to a centrifuge for excess water removal.

Stage 5. The prepared mass is then formed into 20 kilo blocks and quick-frozen at -200С. As factories and consumers of surimi are often located a long way from fishery zones, often on another continent, natural cryoprotants such as sorbitol are added to the surimi for preserving the fish protein properties. That is why surimi has a slightly sweet taste.
The surimi is then transported to the various manufacturers in reefer containers having a constantly controlled temperature of -20ºС.