Whole Round Frozen Half Shell Mussel

    The designation "Whole Round" for frozen half-shell mussels specifies that the cooked meat remains fully intact, undamaged, and attached to one shell valve. The meat must show no tears in the mantle, no separation between the foot and visceral mass, and no shrinkage that pulls tissue away from the shell edge. This grade requires visual inspection of each individual unit after cooking and before freezing. Any piece with mantle retraction, fragmentation, or shell damage is removed from the line.

    Mussels are bivalve mollusks that attach to hard substrates using a byssus, a bundle of protein threads secreted by the byssal gland in the foot. The byssal threads contain the amino acid 3,4-dihydroxyphenylalanine (DOPA), which forms strong adhesive bonds with wet surfaces. In commercial aquaculture, mussels are cultivated on suspended longlines or ropes that keep the animals above the seabed. This method reduces the intake of benthic sediment, resulting in cleaner shells and a lower grit content in the finished product. After harvest, live mussels undergo depuration in tanks with UV-sterilised, temperature-controlled seawater. During this period, the animals expel sand and residual gut contents, which reduces internal contamination.