The sausages of the sea
People have been left horrified after seeing how crabsticks are made, with some going as far to say that they’ll now never them again.
We live a sheltered existence, where we can happily stay oblivious to how a lot of our favourite foods are made. The moment you first see how things like sausages and chicken nuggets are made, there’s no going back and you can never quite look at them in the same way again.
Well, if you don’t want your perception of crabsticks to change, stop reading now.
A video on YouTube has detailed how them popular food item gets made, allowing people to see through the looking glass.
The start seems normal enough, with the process kicking off with some frozen fish meat.
Here’s the first curveball though – it’s not crab meat, but actually largely made up of Alaskan pollock.
This is then fed into a huge mixer and churned up with ingredients such as egg whites and wheat.
This is all combined into a disturbing grey paste that looks more like something you might use if you were renovating your bathroom than anything you’d happily put in your mouth.
Things don’t get better from here.
The putty-like substance is fed into a machine that creates one long strip of solid fish material, which is then woven together to create the texture of crab or lobster meat.
Some of the end product is then sold off as surimi or substitute crab meat, whilst the rest is given an orange coating and sold as crabsticks.
So, yes – the crabsticks you pick up in the supermarket don’t contain any crab.
People were left shocked at this realisation, with one person writing: “I will never purchase this ever again! Thank you for opening my eyes!”
Another said: “I always thought this stuff was disgusting, now I KNOW it is.”
But some weren’t put off after seeing behind the crabstick curtain.
One person commented: “I love adding lots of mock crabmeat to my delicious pasta salad recipe. See, now y’all went and made me hungry!!!”
“To be perfectly honest, I like the product. It’s very affordable and makes a very good cold crab salad,” said another.
Ignorance is bliss.
Related links:
Prototype for world’s first ‘Fish & Chip Hotel’ launched – and it looks grim
Heinz settles age-old ketchup in the fridge debate
