Crab Processing is globally a major contributor to the economic well being of the seafood industry. Most of the current production is packed with the traditional packaging system, only a few has changed over the past 30-50 years and the sector has not kept pace with packaging development in other sectors of the food industry it is likely that successful crab processors will require innovative packaging and new value added products to survive and flourish in an increasingly competitive market place. There is a wide opportunity existing for crab meat processors to expand their business by developing new value added products and ideas that meet market needs using new flexible packaging technology .
Crab meat is used by most of the countries across the globe, prized for its soft, delicate and sweet taste .Crab meat is low in fat and contains around 82 calories .In recent years, the crab meat is available in the market in the form of ready to eat canned products and various by products, so the processing of crab meat is increasing day by day around the world.
The crab processing industries export their products to US market depending on the part of the crab meat segregated in different grades such as Colossal (largest whole unbroken piece available in crab), Jumbo lump (meat from two large muscles connected to the swimming legs) ,Lump (it's a broken pieces of jumbo lump ), Special (shreds and small flakes of white meat from the body cavity of the crab). Claw (the dark pink meat that comes from the swimming fins and claws of the crab). The major steps involved in crab processing are raw material receiving (Blue crab) , washing and weighing, chilled storage (-18˚C), cooking (92˚C -15 mintues) and cooling, debacking and washing , meat picking(colossal, jumbo lump, lump, super lump, claw, special, clock tail claw), shell checking(under fluorescent light), can printing and labelling verification, filling and weighing, SAPP adding (0.6g/can), seaming , can cooling, chilling, pasteurization for two hours, can cooling, packing, chilled storage(-18˚C) and shipping. The whole process gets depended on the customer preference.
As a result of above, the crab processing industries are contributing a large economic part in our world, and also provide ready to eat caned products of crabs with different grades to the customers. Therefore, crab processing is a best way to increase our annual economic production in seafood industries.