Processing Procedure of Frozen Local Squid Rings

Frozen Todarodes squid rings are seafood products made by processing fresh squid into rings through a series of treatments and then freezing them for preservation. The processing procedure must balance food safety, texture retention, and shelf-life extension. The detailed processing flow is as follows:

1. Squid Raw Material Inspection and Pretreatment

Fresh or iced todarodes squid is selected, requiring firm flesh, natural color (light pink or white), no peculiar smell, no damage, and uniform size (usually squid weighing over 150 grams are chosen to facilitate processing into uniform-sized squid rings).

During inspection, freshness indicators of the squid must be checked, such as pH value (preferably 6.3-6.8) and volatile basic nitrogen (≤20mg/100g), to ensure compliance with food safety standards.

If frozen squid raw materials are used, low-temperature thawing is required: place the squid in a refrigerated environment at 0-4°C for natural thawing, or use running water for spray thawing (water temperature not exceeding 20°C). High temperatures should be avoided to prevent the flesh from softening and nutrient loss. After thawing, the surface moisture must be drained.

2. Processing

Head and Viscera Removal: Separate the squid's head from the body, remove the eyes, mouth, and viscera (note that edible squid tentacles can be retained for separate processing), and rinse the abdominal cavity with clean water to remove sediment and blood until clean.

Skin Peeling: Tear off the brown film (outer skin) on the squid's surface. If the film is difficult to remove, briefly soak the squid in hot water at around 80°C for 3-5 seconds, then quickly transfer it to cold water. This makes the film easier to peel off.

Cartilage Removal: There is a transparent cartilage (commonly known as "squid bone") inside the squid's body. It should be pulled out with a knife from the connection with the head to ensure no hard bones remain in the flesh.

Cutting into Rings: The cleaned squid body is transversely cut into uniform-thickness rings (i.e., squid rings). Common specifications are 3-7 cm in diameter, 0.8-1.2 cm in thickness, and 1-1.2 cm in width, which can be adjusted according to market demand. A sharp knife should be used during cutting to avoid breaking the edges of the squid rings.

3. Cleaning and Draining

Cleaning: Put the cut squid rings into clean water and gently stir to remove surface 碎肉，blood, and impurities. The cleaning time should not be too long (about 1-2 minutes) to prevent the flesh from absorbing too much water, which affects the texture.

Draining: Place the cleaned squid rings in a sieve to drain water, or use a centrifuge for dehydration (the rotation speed should not be too high to avoid deformation of the squid rings). Ensure there are no obvious water droplets on the surface, as this will affect the subsequent freezing effect.

4. Freezing Treatment

Individual Quick Freezing (IQF): Spread the squid rings evenly on a freezing tray and place them in an individual quick freezer (such as a spiral freezer). Freeze them quickly at a low temperature of -35°C to -40°C, ensuring the central temperature of the squid rings drops to below -18°C within 1 hour. This method can prevent the squid rings from sticking together and maintain their integrity.

Screening Before Packaging: After freezing, screen out broken, deformed, or undersized/over-sized squid rings to ensure uniform product appearance.

5. Packaging and Refrigerated Storage

Packaging: Put the qualified frozen squid rings into food-grade plastic bags or aluminum foil bags according to specifications (e.g., 200g/bag, 500g/bag) and seal them (vacuum packaging can extend the shelf life). The packaging must be labeled with product name, specifications, production date, shelf life, storage conditions, and other information.

Refrigerated Storage: The packaged squid rings must be stored in a freezer below -18°C, with a temperature fluctuation of no more than ±2°C. Avoid repeated thawing and freezing, which can cause the flesh to deteriorate. The shelf life is usually 24 months.

6. Quality Inspection

Multi-link quality inspections are required during processing, including:

Detection of pesticide and veterinary drug residues and heavy metal content in raw materials;

Monitoring of microbial indicators in the processing environment (such as total bacterial count and Escherichia coli);

Sensory evaluation (color, shape, smell), physical and chemical indicators (moisture content, pH value), and safety indicators (pathogenic bacteria) testing of finished products to ensure compliance with national standards (such as GB 10136-2015 National Food Safety Standard for Animal Aquatic Products).

Through the above processes, frozen local squid rings can retain the fresh and tender texture of squid to the greatest extent, and extend the shelf life through freezing technology, making them easy to transport and sell. They are a common convenient product in seafood and squid processing.

Frozen squid rings, china squid rings supplier, squid rings producer, squid rings exporter, squid rings manufacturer, seafoods supplier, squid tubes, squid flowers