Blue Star Foods is rolling out a line of grab-and-go seafood items, which feature QR code traceability, at Seafood Expo North America in Boston, Massachusetts.
Blue Star’s new Grab and Go line includes two four-ounce Crab N Go foil pouches – one with claw crab meat and one with lump crab meat – and a four-ounce Shrimp N Go pouch, according to Blue Star CEO and CSO John Keeler.
“The population is moving at a fast pace. We are on the go, and there is a significant movement of health-conscious consumers – especially millennials – who seek out healthy snack and meal alternatives,” Keeler said.
The Grab and Go line is ideal for supermarkets, convenience stores, airport kiosks, and restaurants, Keeler added.
Blue Star’s patented Eco-Fresh Pasteurized Foil Pouch technology gives the Grab and Go items a shelf life of about one year, “providing a fresher and better-tasting crab meat versus traditional aluminum cans,” the company said in a statement.
Blue Star will also incorporate QR code-enabled technology into its Grab and Go line, enabling consumers to easily access information about the product, including harvesting details.
“Millennials want to know where their seafood is from, how it is caught, reared, and farmed. [They’re asking], what are the social, economic and environmental impacts of consuming any species?” Keeler said. “Our application helps maintain the blue swimming crab species by capturing all relevant harvest and yield data.”
Last year, Blue Star introduced what it called the first “scan on demand” QR code-enabled verifiable traceability application for seafood. The project was initiated “as an improvement fishery project for our core business and to guarantee the longevity of the blue swimming crab species,” Keeler said.
“With the help of partners such as Wilderness Markets to design the system, and our efforts to implement the system in the field, the pilot has validated our hypothesis,” he said. “We can see a direct correlation to improper fishing practices within blue swimming crab and how it impacts the supply chain, and the economics related to the harvesting and sales of blue swimming crab.”
