Fish and fish products

Fish and fish products are consumed as food all over the world. With other seafoods, it provides the world's prime source of high-quality protein: 14% to 16% of the animal protein consumed worldwide. Over one billion people rely on fish as their primary source of animal protein.

Fish and other aquatic organisms are also processed into various food and non-food products.

Fish products and Preservation Methods

Fresh fish

Canned fish

Frozen fish

Curing (food preservation)

Curing refers to various food preservation and flavoring processes, especially of meat or fish, by the addition of a combination of salt, sugar, nitrates or nitrite. Many curing processes also involve smoking.

Salt-cured meat

Salt-cured meat or salted meat, for example bacon and kippered herring, is meat or fish preserved or cured with salt.

Dried and salted cod

Dried and salted cod, usually called salt cod, is cod preserved by salting, drying, or both.

Smoked fish

Smoked fish are fish that have been cured by smoking.

Stockfish -

Stockfish is unsalted fish, especially cod, dried by sun and wind on wooden racks on the foreshore called flakes, or in special drying houses. The drying of food is the world's oldest known preservation method, and dried fish has a storage life of several years.

Fish slice

Fish oil

Fish oil is oil derived from the tissues of oily fish. It is recommended[1] for a healthy diet because it contains the omega-3 fatty acids, eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), precursors to eicosanoids that reduce inflammation throughout the body.

Processed fish products

Surimi refers to a Japanese food product intended to mimic the meat of lobster, crab, and other shellfish. It is typically made from white-fleshed fish (such as pollock or hake) that has been pulverized to a paste and attains a rubbery texture when cooked.

Fish glue is made by boiling the skin, bones and swim bladders of fish. Fish glue has long been valued for its use in all manner of products from illuminated manuscripts to the Mongolian war bow.

Fish oil is recommended for a healthy diet because it contains the omega-3 fatty acids, eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), precursors to eicosanoids that reduce inflammation throughout the body.

Fish emulsion is a fertilizer emulsion that is produced from the fluid remains of fish processed for fish oil and fish meal industrially.

Fish hydrolysate is ground up fish carcasses. After the usable portions are removed for human consumption, the remaining fish body – guts, bones, cartilage, scales, meat, etc – are put into water and ground up.

Fish meal is made from both whole fish and the bones and offal from processed fish. It is a brown powder or cake obtained by rendering pressing the whole fish or fish trimmings to remove the fish oil. It used as a high-protein supplement in aquaculture feed.

Fish sauce is a condiment that is derived from fish that have been allowed to ferment. It is an essential ingredient in many curries and sauces.

Isinglass is a substance obtained from the swim bladders of fish (especially sturgeon), it is used for the clarification of wine and beer.

Tatami iwashi is a Japanese processed food product made from baby sardines laid out and dried while entwined in a single layer to form a large mat-like sheet.

Other processed products

Pearls, mother-of-pearl, and abalone are valued for their lustre. Traditional methods of pearl hunting are now virtually extinct.

Sea horse, star fish, sea urchin and sea cucumber are used in traditional Chinese medicine.

The Sea snails Murex brandaris and Murex trunculus are used to make the pigment Tyrian purple.

Somesepia pigment is made from the inky secretions of cuttlefish.

Kelp is a major source of iodine, can be used as fertilizer, and kelp ash can be used in soap and glass production.

Fish may also be collected live for research, observation, or for the aquarium trade.