The housewives of America should soon be finding two more fish products bearing a U.S. grade shield in the freezers of their favorite food store, the Department of the Interior announced today. This shield is their assurance that fish products are of high quality and have been processed under continuous inspection of the Department of the Interior’s Fish and Wildlife Service.
New quality standards are being proposed for frozen fried fish portions and for frozen raw breaded fish sticks. The Department also proposes to raise the quality requirements in the existing standards for frozen fried fish sticks.
The housewife will benefit from these higher standards by being able to purchase better quality fish sticks and the processor should benefit from increased sales, the Fish and Wildlife Service said. The raising of the quality requirements of this product is another successful cooperative effort on the part of the American consumer. High quality fish and processed under modern sanitary techniques, will put the best quality fishery products the consumers table.
Today, the housewife will be able to purchase 11 different frozen fish products bearing the U.S. Grade A inspection shield. They are fired fish sticks, raw breaded shrimp. Haddock fillets, cod fillets, halibut steaks, salmon steaks, raw headless shrimp, ocean perch fillets, sole and flounder fillets, fried scallops and raw breaded fish portions. The new standards will raise the total to 13.
Quality standards are developed by the Bureau of Commercial Fisheries of the Fish and Wildlife Service, in cooperation with the fishing industry. The standards set the requirements for taste, odor, color, uniformity, texture and other features the housewives look for. A 30-day period following publication in the Federal Register of the Intentions of the Department of the Interior to establish the standards is provide for comments by interested persons.
Accepting quality standards for a fishery product is a voluntary on the part of processors and the presence of USI inspectors during the preparation of a fishery product in the plant allows the firm to place the “Shield of Quality” bearing the name of the Department of the Interior on the label.
