Crown launches salmon cans fit for global distribution

The new Protact cans are constructed from advanced polymer-coated steel manufactured by Netherlands-based Corus Packaging Plus. Crown Food Packaging, an affiliate of Crown Holdings, claims that the can exceeds all FDA and European Union food safety standards and will enable salmon processors to use the same packaging for global distribution.

The manufacturer also claims that the Protact cans are specifically engineered to withstand the demanding salmon packing process in order to deliver the best possible product to the consumer. Polymers used in Protact cans are chemically inert, so there is no effect on product taste.

Applied by direct extrusion, the advanced polymer coating on the Protact can creates a highly polished finish on both the interior and exterior of the package, which Crown says gives processors the opportunity to distinguish their brands and enhance retail shelf appeal.

Crown claims that Protact cans have already received approval among processors of wild Alaskan salmon. Both Peter Pan Seafoods and Icicle Seafoods plan to package their salmon in 1-pound and 1/2-pound-sized cans.

"Design opportunities are very attractive with this progressive packaging,"​ said Peter Pan Seafoods chief executive Barry Collier. "The fact that Protact meets or exceeds food safety standards in all of our markets is a tremendous benefit for us logistically."​

Don Giles, chief executive of Icicle Seafoods, said: "The new packaging is already differentiating our brand to consumers around the world in a very consistent, appealing way."​

The packaging innovation comes as fish processors look at ways in which to promote their product. Fish farming is still struggling to be a sustainable industry as it continues to use more and more resources for production, according to a recent report from US scientists.

Rebecca Goldburg, a senior scientist with Environmental Defense in New York, believes that much of the ground that has been gained in conserving waste in recent years has been lost due to the continued complexity of fish farming.

One of the main issues that Environmental Defense is concerned with is the fact that farmed fish are often fed on meal caught from wild seafood. This both defeats the object of trying to conserve natural seafood reserves and is also counter-productive because often more seafood-based meal is needed to produce farmed fish in weight-to-weight terms.

On the positive side, Goldburg does say that the reliance on natural seafood-based feed is decreasing slightly. This decrease has been cited as primarily being down to the increase of aquaculture production in China. This market has grown off the back of carp and tilapia farming - two species that do not eat other seafoods.

Goldburg also emphasised continued efforts to coach carnivorous fish such as salmon into eating vegetable protein-based feeds.

"They're going to have to figure out how to use less fishmeal in the long run,"​ said Claude Boyd, an expert on aquaculture at Auburn University in Alabama in an interview with the New Science Update​.

However, efforts to increase the amount of vegetable-based protein are still not having enough of a desired affect. Goldburg points out that total seafood catches dedicated to fish farming are still on the rise. In 1997 the global figure was estimated to be 10 million tonnes, whilst in 2001 that figure was put at 12 million tonnes, putting a growing strain the sea populations of many popular fish varieties such as herrings and sardines.

Goldburg says that the situation could soon be made worse if the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration goes ahead with plans to promote off-shore farming of cod and red snapper - two carnivorous varieties of fish.

The aim is to grow the size of the US aquaculture industry by five times, a situation that would obviously put further strain on natural seafood reserves.