The rise of frozen shrimp in China market started from the north. The outdoor temperature in northern China is low in winter. When white shrimps are retailed in vegetable markets, supermarkets and other channels, frozen shrimps can't be thawed outdoors, and the shrimps stick together, so consumers can't get what they need according to their needs. Frozen salted shrimp is easy to disperse, which is convenient for consumers to choose. Driven by market demand, the frozen salted shrimp market has developed rapidly.

However, many dealers are not very clear about the difference between brine IQF shrimp and semi-IQF shrimp (also called frozen white shrimp/frozen white shrimp in China market). Today, let's learn about their respective advantages and disadvantages, as well as the different markets they adapt to.

Frozen shrimp in water

First of all, it needs to be clear that salt freezing and water freezing are both freezing technologies, and their ultimate goal is to preserve the taste, taste and nutrition of shrimp and facilitate the transportation between international trade. It is precisely because of the different freezing techniques that there are obvious differences in appearance, market price and taste between salt-frozen shrimp and water-frozen shrimp.

Different freezing processes

The English for frozen shrimp is frozen shrimp with salt water, abbreviated as IQF shrimp with salt water. The English name of water-frozen shrimp is Semi-individual quick frozen shrimp, or semi-IQF shrimp for short.

From the English name, we know that salt-frozen shrimp is a separate frozen shrimp, and shrimp is dispersed from shrimp to shrimp; Water-frozen shrimps are frozen together by the action of water freezing into ice. Therefore, in the market, some dealers also refer to water-frozen shrimp as block frozen shrimp or plate frozen shrimp.

In the final analysis, the most essential difference between salt-frozen white shrimp and water-frozen white shrimp lies in the freezing process.

Salted white shrimp

The technological process of water-frozen white shrimp is: shrimp is collected in the shrimp pond, transported back to the factory, sorted manually, sorted by machine, packed, frozen (it takes 7-8 hours), packaged and sold at the factory. The traditional cabinet freezer is used to freeze the shrimps together through the water on the surface of the shrimps. Workers in some factories will add a small amount of fresh water when packing shrimp boxes to make products with net weight of 1.4kg/ box and gross weight of 2kg/ box.

Compared with water-frozen white shrimp, salt-frozen shrimp has more low-temperature salt water showers.

The technological process of salt-frozen white shrimp is as follows: shrimp is collected in shrimp pond, transported back to the factory, sorted manually, sorted by machine, bagged, frozen in ultra-low temperature salt water (about 10 minute), packaged and sold ex-factory. The central temperature of shrimp was reduced to about-17 to 18 degrees Celsius in a short time by using a low-temperature brine freezer, so that the shrimp was quickly frozen and salt particles and hoarfrost were formed on the surface. Among them, the brine is high-concentration brine, and each factory will adjust the brine composition and shower time according to its own actual situation, which are the core secrets of the factory. After the salt freezing is completed, some factories will put some crushed ice at the bottom of the shrimp box to meet the demand of customers in China for gross weight, so that the gross weight of the whole box is 2kg/ box and the net weight is 1.8kg/ box.

Processing of salted white shrimp

Compared with the freezing process, the freezing time of salt-frozen shrimp is shorter than that of water-frozen shrimp, and the processing efficiency is higher. At the same time, in Ecuador, there are not many factories with salt freezing equipment and mastering salt freezing technology. The salt freezing technology of large processing plants such as Ace 143, Omasa, Santa and Old Captain is relatively mature. The new production line of South American shrimp emperor (Songa) has just been put into use, and the first batch of products have arrived in China. In China market, due to the relationship between supply and demand, the futures quotation of salt-frozen white shrimp is always about 0.2-0.3 USD/kg more expensive than that of water-frozen shrimp.