Australia is one of the few countries in the world where much of the domestic catch of prawns is landed chilled after being cooked onboard the vessel. In most other fisheries the catch is chilled thoroughly and then brought into port. This gives the buyer or processor a much greater range of options in determining which products to prepare according to the market demand. This flexibility of approach is currently not evident, although it is common overseas. Before these options can be fully explored, it is necessary to have reliable information on the storage life of prawns chilled and transported by appropriate methods. It is also essential to take into account variation between species and, most importantly, the nature of the bacterial flora which occurs naturally on the prawn and which is encouraged to predominate under the conditions of storage.

The work in this project was based on the assumption that the processing and development of prawn products will take place in land-based premises, not at sea. In order to provide sufficient options for product development, processors must receive chilled raw prawns in good condition.

Two major factors affect the storage life of prawns, bacterial action and development of blackspot. Control of these problems leads to higher standard products with an optimum storage life.

The project work thus first concentrated on the quality of typical product in the marketplace, then on handling practices and storage of chilled prawns and their microbiology before investigating the effects of packaging and storage.