FOOD NEWS
What To Keep An Eye Out For When Buying High-Quality Frozen Shrimp
By Betsy Parks
If you're shopping for frozen shrimp, which includes almost all shrimp at the grocery store, look for anything on the package that indicates that it was flash-frozen on the boat.
Shrimp deteriorates rapidly in quality once it's caught. If it's frozen right on the boat, its freshness is locked in, and you know you're getting the best possible product.
However, if flash-frozen shrimp is unavailable, any frozen shrimp is still a better option than raw shrimp laid out on the ice in the fish case.
Unless you live near the coast where shrimp are caught and brought back for sale on the same day, shrimp laid out in the seafood case is almost always just thawed frozen shrimp.
Frozen shrimp are cheaper and fresher than those in the seafood case because you don't know how long the shrimp has been thawed.
If the shrimp is frozen with the heads on, look for black spots on the head and the body. These spots are from oxidation, meaning the shrimp wasn't frozen immediately.