Presentation terms are the first line of any seafood specification, and a wrong one propagates all the way to the invoice. This is a short working reference.
The whole-fish terms
WR — whole round. The fish exactly as caught. Nothing removed: head, guts, fins, tail all present. This is the highest weight the fish will ever have.
HOG — head-on gutted. Gutted, head left on. The standard presentation for fresh Norwegian salmon and trout export.
H&G (or HG) — headed and gutted. Gutted, head removed. The standard presentation for frozen whitefish.
J-cut. A J-shaped cut behind the head removing the nape and part of the belly flap, used principally on Greenland halibut.
The order of weight, heaviest first, is: WR, then HOG, then H&G, then J-cut. The gaps are substantial. A weight band written for one presentation cannot be carried across to another.
The cut terms
FLT — fillet. The side of the fish removed from the frame. Skin, bone status and trim are all separate questions.
LOIN. The thick, even forward section of the fillet, free of belly and tail. Limited yield per fish, which is why loins carry a premium.
PORT — portion. A fixed-weight piece cut from fillet or loin to a target weight and tolerance.
SPLT — split. Fish opened out flat along the backbone. The base presentation for salting, drying and klippfisk.
CLST — cluster. A crab section: several legs on a piece of body shell.
PND — peeled. Shellfish with the shell removed, sold as meat.
The mistakes that cost money
HOG read as H&G. They differ by the weight of a head — for a 5 kg salmon, a meaningful proportion. Where there is any chance of confusion, write the term out in full.
A band carried between presentations. “2–3 kg” means one fish as H&G and a different fish as J-cut. Write the presentation before the band, always.
“Whole” without qualification. Whole round and head-on gutted are both “whole” in ordinary speech. In a contract they are not interchangeable.
A trim letter used as a presentation. “Trim D” describes a fillet’s finishing, not whether the product is a fillet at all. Both belong on the order.
A usable rule
Write every product line in this order:
species — presentation — condition — grading system and band — cut detail — pack — weight basis
For example:
Atlantic cod — H&G — frozen at sea, single frozen — four-band grading, 2–4 kg — skin on — bulk carton — net of glaze.
Seven fields. Nothing left to interpretation.