A cooperation between Wetec, GP Stainless and MRK1.
The world is worried about food. Protein to be exact. Rightly so, proteins are indeed a problem if 10 billion people want to eat fish and meat like the US do. So there’s talk about ’transition’. So why not start to harvest (not decimate) the plagues in the seas and oceans?
Crab meat from Crustalicious fills that void. High in protein, ideal in the Omega-3 to 6 department, almost no fat and – most important – very very good. Dumplings, crab soufflé, dimsum, crab cakes, crab balls, wontons, surimi made from real crab, and much much more. We can even imagine crab bread, crab pizza or Crab Wellington. Please let us know if you have another great idea.
The plague and how we can get rid of them
Started four years ago from the ambitious idea to turn a tremendous plague into a delicacy, these three companies embarked on a ‘two-steps-forward-one-step-back’ project to build a machine without using too much human labour and produce delicious and clean, raw crab meat.
In our neck of the woods, three species form plagues. The exotic Chinese mitten crab, the native green crab and the larger Brown crab. They are not a by-catch. They are not in any quotation. They don’t really exist. And yet, there they are. By the billions.
See the process
Crab facts
Crabs have large compound eyes made up
of hundreds of tiny lenses.
There are different kind
of crabs we find and process
From our base at the fish auction at Stellendam, we have three species of crab that form nuisances.
First of all, the green crab (Carcinus Maenas) that feeds of the young mussels in the Wadden Sea and has invaded large portions of the coastline aswell as the nog saltwater lake Grevelingen. Upto 95% of everything caught in these waters can be green crab at times, and at this time there is little or no market for them.
Secondly, the exotic Chinese Mitten Crab (Eriocheir sinensis) that has hitchhiked its way to Europe in ballast tanks several decades back and begun their claim to fame in all sweet water bodies the continent has. By the billions… Very popular in China are the bigger males, but unfortunately the socalled ‘brown meat’ contains too much PCB’s and heavy metals for the fishermen to be allowed to catch them. That is, until we stepped in. Our machine removes the dark meat and thereby removes all PCB’s and heavy metals, leaving you a clean, fresh and delicious halfproduct.
Last but not least, the bodies of the Brown Crab (Cancer pagurus) of which the claws have some value to the fishermen, but the bodies that are left have not. These can be turned into fresh delicious crab meat by us aswel.
Globally though, many more species would be applicable to use in our machine. Safe, cheap and sustainable.
Chinese Mitten Crab
Chinese Mitten Crab
Eriocheir sinensis. Plague and exotic in our waters. Delicacy in China. Dream catch for the inland fishermen.
Beach Crab
Beach Crab
Carcinus maenas. Abundant local specy. Basis of all Bisque d'Homards. Our favorite global plague.
Brown Crab
Brown Crab
Cancer pagurus. Delicate flavour. Their claws are used, their bodies were not. Untill we stepped in.
