The work of a Maryland Sea Grant Extension specialist helps crabmeat processors stay competitive.
By Wendy Mitman Clarke | Images by Nicole Lehming
Few things say Maryland better than catching a “mess o’ crabs,” throwing them into a steamer, then spreading them on a paper-covered picnic table for an afternoon feast with friends and family. But for the state’s crab processors, life is never so simple when preparing the local delicacy for market, and this is where the work of Maryland Sea Grant Extension Seafood Technology Specialist Cathy Liu is critically important.
Based at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore Center for Food Science and Technology in Princess Anne, Liu provides education, technical expertise, and hands-on support to help the state’s small, independently-owned seafood processing businesses compete successfully in a highly competitive, quickly changing global market.
Headshot of Cathy Liu, wearing glasses and a baseball cap on a dock next to a body of water. There are trees in the distance.
Cathy Liu is the Maryland Sea Grant Extension Seafood Technology Specialist.
“If Cathy weren’t doing this work, no one would,” says Bill Sieling, executive vice president of the Chesapeake Bay Seafood Industry Association (CBSIA). “She inspires that kind of dedication and desire on the industry’s part to do a good job.”
Maryland is known worldwide for its crabmeat. According to the state Department of Natural Resources, 50% of US blue crab harvest comes from Chesapeake Bay, and blue crabs represent the state’s largest commercial fishery, with a value of about $45 million. Maryland’s seafood processors must meet and maintain extremely high-quality standards to safely process this perishable product.
In addition to those state and federal standards, crabmeat processors are encouraged to participate in the voluntary Maryland Crab Meat Quality Assurance Program, through which they can access Liu’s expertise (in 2021, 70 to 80% of the state’s crabmeat processors participated). This collaborative effort among Maryland Sea Grant Extension, CBSIA, and the state helps processors stay on the leading technological edge to ensure the highest quality crabmeat. This, in turn, helps these small, independently-owned business stay competitive.
“We appreciate it. It’s a real quality program,” says Jack Brooks, an owner of the Cambridge-based J.M. Clayton Seafood Company. “They help us make sure we are in total compliance or as much as humanly possibly with regard to quality control, record-keeping, processes.” The information that Liu provides, he says, helps the company inform customers about their product’s quality and makes it easier to work with state and federal regulators.
Since she arrived at Extension in 2014, Liu’s work has been key to making the program successful. For new processors, among the important services that she provides is a crab cooking study, also known as a crab heat penetration study. This determines the critical control point, a combination of temperature and time, to ensure that cooked crab is free of the foodborne pathogen Listeria monocytogenes and safe for humans to eat. It becomes part of the processor’s Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) plan, which is a required food safety management program for state and federal licenses.
Processors cook crabs in heavy-duty steel boxes called “retorts” that can accommodate 25–30 bushels of crabs at a time.
Image of a big black steel box with the door open and temperature gauges on the top.
They must ensure that crabs are sufficiently cooked throughout the entire container to eliminate Listeria monocytogenes.
Image of steel cooking cage full of crabs in front of the open steamer. Eight wires from probes placed in crabs are coming out of cage and being held by a man to the left.
To conduct the test, probes are inserted into four to eight crabs, which are distributed throughout the retort.
Close-up image of crab with probe stuck in it’s side. The probe is held in with a rubber band.
The processor heats the retort, and Liu records the probes’ data to determine the critical control point for that retort.
She then writes up the results in a report that’s shared with the owner. Each new crab picking plant must have this study done before getting a business license.
For existing businesses, Liu provides required annual retort thermometer checks for accuracy verification and conducts crabmeat pasteurization studies for the few businesses that have the equipment to pasteurize their crabmeat if they want to extend its shelf life. In these studies, the target pathogen is Clostridium botulinum.
Liu looking at the temperature gauge on top of the steamer.
A close-up image of the temperature gauge on top of the steamer.
During a heat penetration study, Cathy Liu checks the retort's thermometer.
She also works with the CBSIA to conduct biweekly sampling to identify any potential problems with the product, as well as troubleshoot the cause. Liu analyzes these samples’ microbiological test results and provides regularly updated reports, which processors can use to verify and market their product’s quality, as well as satisfy state and federal documentation requirements.
Maryland Crab Meat Quality Assurance Program video produced by the Maryland Department of Agriculture
Liu and the CBSIA also provide consulting support, Brooks says. “If we have a concern or a question, they can share their valuable knowledge of what they know to help guide us and keep us moving in a positive direction.”
