Whitefish from the Northeast Atlantic reaches a buyer by one of three routes. The species is the same. The product is not.
Route one: fresh
The fish is landed chilled, on ice, and stays chilled the whole way. Freshness is measured from the catch date, and the clock never stops. This route gives the best texture and the shortest window. It suits buyers who are close to Norway, or who are paying for air freight because the end use justifies it.
The critical fields are catch date, gear, and the temperature maintained through the chain — 0 °C to +2 °C, on ice, without interruption.
Route two: frozen at sea (FAS)
The fish is processed and frozen aboard the catching vessel, normally within hours of hauling. It is single frozen by definition, and the time between capture and −18 °C is as short as the industry gets.
FAS product typically shows low drip loss, firm texture and good appearance after thaw. It is also produced under the constraints of a working vessel: presentation options are narrower than on shore, and the fish is usually H&G rather than filleted.
The critical fields are the vessel, the catch date, the freezing date, and the grading system the bands come from.
Route three: frozen on shore
The fish is landed fresh, handled and processed on land, then frozen. This route allows filleting, loining, portioning and any presentation a shore plant can do, and it is where most value-added whitefish originates.
It is also where the single/double frozen question becomes live. Shore-frozen fish made from fresh landings is single frozen. Shore-processed fish made from FAS raw material — thawed, filleted, refrozen — is double frozen. Both are described as “frozen on shore”.
The critical fields are the production date, the freezing history, and the glaze percentage.
Choosing between them
There is no universally better route. Match the route to the use:
| If you are | Consider |
|---|---|
| Serving whole or in large cuts, close to Norway | Fresh |
| Buying H&G for your own processing, on volume | Frozen at sea |
| Buying finished fillets, loins or portions | Frozen on shore |
| Running a coating or portioning line on price | Shore frozen, freezing history declared |
What to write in the enquiry
State route: fresh / frozen at sea / frozen on shore. Where frozen: state freezing date and freezing history. Where FAS: state vessel and catch date. Glaze percentage to be declared; price net of glaze.
Four lines. They separate three genuinely different products that would otherwise all arrive described as “frozen cod”.