Sustainability & Traceability

Ocean Garden Authentic Mexican Shrimp is your guarantee of quality, consistency and a commitment to environmental accountability.

Sustainability – Ocean Garden is in cooperation with Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO’s) and Mexican fishermen to promote long term sustainability and socio economic balance in the Gulf of California. Both wild and farm shrimp industries are highly regulated and managed for the long term.

Traceability – Ocean Garden’s comprehensive traceability program provides a platform for the elimination of illegal fishing in the Sea of Cortez.As a result, seafood buyers can be sure that they are purchasing shrimp from a legal fishery whose practices comply with all U.S. and Mexican environmental regulations.Whether from shrimp farms or wild harvest, 100% of Mexican Shrimp imported by Ocean Garden into the U.S. is traceable from processing plant to end-user.

Quality Control – The quality control system utilizes a unique barcode and electronic database to track a shrimp’s lifecycle from product origin, processing plant, lot and warehouse to truck and shipping method.

Program Background – Ocean Garden examined historical data, production and statistical information from more than 100 processing plants worldwide, HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point system) data, and U.S. and Mexican food labeling regulations to establish its proprietary program. Initially inspired by a desire to provide its customers with improved food safety and food labeling information, the traceability program also evolved to meet the guidelines of the Federal Drug Administration’s Bioterrorism Act.

Traceability Barcode – Through a single barcode, Ocean Garden’s quality control staff has instant access to product information, including Mexico as country of origin, processing plant, shrimp species (wild or farm-raised), brand, size, weight, color, production lot number, description (such as peeled and deveined tail-on), and UPC retail code, which expedites inspection and evaluation processes. Traceability stickers are included on both inner cartons and master cases.

Ocean Trust – Ocean Garden has been a long standing supporter and contributor to Ocean Trust as an Oceans Partner member supporting the vision of a positive approach to conservation.

 

  Sustainable Fisheries Partnership (SFP)

We are working with sustainable fisheries partnership to improve the sustainability of shrimp and actively participate in the Shrimp Supply Chain Roundtable, where we cooperate with others to improve the sustainability of the Mexican Shrimp Fishery.

 

Shrimp Nutrition

There’s good news for shrimp lovers. You can eat your shrimp and be heart-healthy too. Research at Rockefeller University Hospital cosponsored by the Harvard School of Public Health¹ confirms that the cholesterol content of shrimp is not a cause for alarm. Numerous other studies reinforce this message: It’s the total fat profile of a food, not the food’s cholesterol content, that most impacts your cholesterol readings.

Low fat and Lean
Shrimp is low-fat and lean – and always has been. A typical serving (3 ounces cooked shrimp) has only 80 calories. Plus, “skinny” shrimp have only one gram of total fat per serving, less than a skinless chicken breast. Here are some specifics from the Rockefeller University research: Participants, all healthy adults with normal cholesterol levels, were rotated through three diets. They were served each of these diets for three weeks: a low-fat baseline diet, a diet high in eggs, and a diet based on 10 ounces of shrimp per day.

Shrimp and Cholesterol
Although shrimp is relatively high in cholesterol, the diet high in steamed shrimp did not adversely affect the lipoprotein file in people with normal blood cholesterol levels. In fact, cholesterol ratios of “bad” cholesterol (LDL) compared to “good” cholesterol (HDL) improved on the high shrimp diet. This ratio of LDL to HDL is an indicator commonly used by doctors to assess the risk of heart disease.The shrimp diet significantly lowered triglyceride levels, more than either the baseline low-fat diet or eggbased diet. Elevated triglycerides are often a worrisome factor in heart-related problems. The shrimp diet did not increase levels of heart-damaging LDL cholesterol.

Bottom line: With our health consciousness focused on total fat intake rather than on dietary cholesterol, there are few objections to eating shrimp. According to the Rockefeller study, shrimp can be included in hearth-healthy nutritional guidelines.² So eat smart when you eat shrimp.

¹American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 11996:64:712:-7 Effects of shrimp consumption on plasma lipoproteins, Elizabeth R De Oliveira e Silva, Cynthia E. Seidman, Jason J. Tian, Lisa C. Hudgins, Frank M. Sacks and Jan L. Breslow.

²As with all foods, the recommendations are for consumers with dietary constrains to exercise the cautions prescribed by their doctors.