It's the Era of 'Surreptitious Seafood'

The future of fish is looking a lot like ... salami? And meatballs. And fried chicken. And, of course, spareribs and burgers. Welcome to the era of surreptitious seafood, an industry gamble that overcoming Americans' relative disinterest in the meat of the sea is all a matter of making fish look and taste less like, well, fish. "Our Taiwanese magic is making tuna taste like fried chicken," says Jack Chi of Tuna Fresh, a Taiwan-based company that sells tuna as fried "nuggets" and breaded chicken-tender-like strips. "We wanted to be able to engage in the US market, and we found that fried foods are the way." Chi's company was one of hundreds showcasing their products at the recent Seafood Expo North America in Boston, where one trend stood out: The seafood being pitched to the US market is looking less and less like seafood, per the AP.

• Fish-skeptical Americans: People in the US have a notoriously limited appetite for seafood, consuming just about 19 pounds a year—a number that has budged only a bit in a century—most of it as shrimp and salmon. The global average is 45 pounds, while some European countries clock in closer to 90 pounds. Iceland leads all, with around 200 pounds per year.
• Hiding the evidence: Disguising seafood to appeal to Americans isn't entirely new—after all, frozen fish sticks and McDonald's Filet-O-Fish hardly scream "catch of the day." But many of the newer products are an entirely different species, or are trying to be. "It looks like a Slim Jim by design," Harbor Bell Seafoods rep Holly Phillips says of the Seattle company's salmon snack strips, available in smoked, lemon-pepper, mango, and—curiously—original. "It doesn't smell fishy. It doesn't taste fishy."
• A hard sell? Some of the newer products may offer similar appeal to, say, sushi, which blends convenience and novelty, but Steve Markenson of consumer marketing firm FMI isn't convinced it will be enough. "The nonseafood folks—which is about 40% of the population—I don't know that this is really going to be appealing to them," he notes. "They're not looking to necessarily add seafood into their diet." Seafood lovers aren't a sure bet, either, as that 10% of dedicated seafood shoppers want it for what it is, not cleverly disguised.
• A new generation: Oddly, the most likely audience may well be the one typically most averse to seafood—the very young, says Joshua Bickert, a seafood market reporter for Expana. "If you package it like hot dogs and hamburgers and chicken tenders, you maybe change that mindset at a younger age."

More here.