My Seafood Ain't No Race Car or What's This Crap In My Shrimp?

Living near the coast as I do, you would think that I could get my hands on some pretty decent seafood, right? Well, it ain't necessarily so! Over the last few years I have noted with growing dismay that the shrimp and scallops that I am able to get just don't have the same flavor that they used to. In fact...they are, in most cases, piteously bland and, in some cases, downright nasty. Being an inquisitive sort, I started asking my friends in the seafood business some fairly pointed questions. Like, what the hell is going on with the seafood?


Slowly, a grim picture began to emerge. It is a picture of greed, deception and downright lack of concern for the taste buds (and wallet) of the average working stiff all for the sake of increased profits. It seems that it is almost impossible these days to buy pure unadulterated shrimp or scallops regardless of where you live! Even this close (they bring it in to a dock that is literally a 10 minute boat ride from my house) all the shrimp I am able to buy has been soaked in a chemical with the distinctly unappetizing name of Sodium Tripolyphosphate. This dastardly chemical is also known as STP. That's right, it has the same name as the performance additive that we used to put in our old clinkers trying to turn them into high-performance race cars. Though it is NOT the same chemical, it is my considered opinion that it probably tastes similar.


The stated purpose of this chemical is to preserve the seafood in question without freezing it so as to allow the fisherman more time at sea between off-loadings. Sounds harmless enough. There are (as you might suspect) a few dark sides to this supposedly innocuous concoction.


First, in the marketing material I was able to find for this product (ain't the internet great) it was pointed out with more than a little glee that this chemical, in fact, also allows the foods treated in it to absorb and retain more water than they otherwise would. This would not normally be objectionable except for the fact that since I am paying for this stuff by weight this means that now the weight has been increased by a significant margin of water. Now, don't get me wrong. Water is fine stuff...but I don't want to pay 16 bucks a pound for it! (Let's put that in perpective...1 gallon of water equals 8 lbs. At $16 per pound that would make water $128 per gallon...and you thought gas was high!)


Another problem with this stuff is this. It completely destroys the flavor of whatever it is used to "preserve". Shrimp is supposed to be sweet with a touch of brininess. Scallops should be even sweeter, but they're not once they have been treated. Shrimp lose all their sweetness and thus become flavors lumps in ones mouth. Treated scallops actually (to my palate anyway) take on some of the flavor of the chemical itself thus rendering them unfit for consumption at any price. Much less the $12-18 a pound they usually go for.


Now, I did some research on this stuff as I am a firm believer that voluntarily eating chemicals that are a principal ingredient in concrete cleaner (go to your local home improvement store and check) is ill-advised at best. In checking I found the official material safety data sheet put out by the US government on this stuff. It advises the following cautions on using this material.


1) It is a caustic material.


2) You should not breathe it in.


3) You should avoid prolonged skin contact.


4) It should not be ingested.


Being a simple country boy, I realize that I do not know everything and that some things are above me, but do not ingest means we shouldn't eat it, right? So why are they soaking our food in this crap?


The US shrimp industry (and in particular the North Carolina shrimpers) have recently made a big deal of trying to get us to buy "fresh, local, wild grown" shrimp. This has been due to the high volume of imported shrimp of various types that have hit the grocery shelves at extremely good price levels in the last few years. These imports have driven the cost of shrimp down to very affordable levels (you can typically now buy a pound of shrimp for less than you can a pound of flounder!) The US seafood industry has been hit pretty hard by this so they have elected to a) increase their expenses by doing a lot of TV advertising slamming foreign shrimp, b) gone to our elected representatives and asked for restrictions on the importing of foreign shrimp and c) added this little jewel of a chemical to their products in an effort to increase their profits which they need as they are spending so much on television advertising.


Hey! I have an idea! Why not stop all that crap and just quit soaking my food in concrete cleaner? I will buy the "fresh, local, wild-grown shrimp" if I know it will taste better than the (substantially) cheaper foreign stuff! Then, instead of trying to get our poor, overworked, tired legislators (notice the facetiousness here?) to pass legislation protecting you from legitimate free-market competition, have them pass the laws you are fighting against now. You know, the ones where you have to label your seafood as chemically treated. This solution probably makes too much sense for any American company but I have noticed that people will happily pay more for organic, chemical free food products. I know I would.