Positioning your seafood business for success depends on several factors—food quality, customer service, store ambience, and reliable suppliers. Yes, your fish, shrimp, squid, and crab stick supplier is part of the equation, so be sure to choose a reliable one.
Compared to other seafood, crab flavoured sticks (also known as “crab sticks”) are harder to find. You can’t always buy them in the marketplace when your krabs inventory runs out. The reason being is that crab sticks are processed fish meat, not freshly caught from the sea. They are only edible imitations, hence the term imitation crab.
Before we look at the considerations when selecting a crab stick supplier in Singapore, let us first take a closer look at imitation crab, its benefits, and how it is made.
More About Imitation Crab
Imitation crab meat is a seafood product made from surimi, fish flesh that has been deboned and minced into a paste. Surimi is then combined with other ingredients, such as starch, egg whites, salt, sugar, and crab extract to achieve the perfect taste. Once all ingredients are mixed, the white fish paste is heated and formed into stick-like cuts.
While crab sticks are not made from real crabs, the former also contains several nutrients found in the latter—but with lower nutrient levels.
The chart below illustrates the nutrient content comparison between imitation crab and real crabs.
Aside from nutritional value, crab sticks also celebrate many good things, including affordability, convenience, and versatility. They are typically a third of the cost of real crab, pre-packed and can be served directly without further preparation, and are available in different recipe variations.
These characteristics of imitation crab have made it a popular alternative ingredient in many crab recipes, such as sushi rolls, crab stick omelettes, crab salad, crab cakes, seafood pasta dishes, and more.
What to Look for In a Crab Stick Supplier
Supplier’s Stellar Reputation
Brand reputation is a crucial consideration for choosing a supplier. Your business cannot afford to close for days and lose customers just because the ingredients were delivered late or the product quality is belatedly discovered to be subpar.
Reliable suppliers deliver goods on time and more importantly, are able to guarantee the quality and freshness of their products with proven accolades and certifications. To ensure you don’t fall victim to such instances, look for a surimi-based seafood product supplier who has a reputable long-term track record. .
Reliability and stability go hand in hand; one cannot exist without the other. You can remain at ease and fully focus on your operations with an experienced supplier whose reputation is as fine as gold. . Established suppliers have a stellar reputation and would uphold the extremely high standards of quality and safety associated with their names.
Excellent Customer Service
It is also worth considering how a supplier communicates with prospective and existing clients. Customer service gives light to what a client wants or needs and influences the overall service delivery. If a supplier is notorious for replying late, dropping calls, and customer cursing, that is a sign to stay back.
Suppliers with poor customer service may disrupt your operations and destroy your calm days. You may lose your sanity when a supplier becomes unreachable when there’s a late order, an invoice issue, or other unforeseen instances. Instead of concentrating on your operations, your team may be spending most of their time frantically putting out administrative and logistical fires created by such suppliers.
The bottom line is to deal with a supplier who possess a responsive customer service feedback system, openly communicates, and proactively provides solutions to problems. It also helps to think about the supplier’s location to reduce risks to your business.
If you run a food distribution or seafood business in Singapore, it is best to deal with a crab stick supplier in Singapore. Doing this eliminates language barriers and unpredictably longer delivery times, gives you greater control, fewer freight costs, and more.
Stringent Food Manufacturing And Production Process
Typically, businesses only look for suppliers who can manufacture and supply the product they want. With a heavy emphasis on the production capabilities of a prospective supplier, they may overlook an essential consideration: the food manufacturing and production process.
As discussed, imitation crab goes through an intricate process. Before you seal a deal with a crab stick supplier, do not focus alone on verifying the supplier’s production capabilities. Ask about the supplier’s crab imitation manufacturing and production process to ensure the products you purchase aresafe to serve and consume beyond any doubt.
If you are running a big, established food distribution operation or seafood restaurants with several branches in Singapore, visiting the supplier’s facility makes perfect sense. Many suppliers will simply tell you how they produce the food items you need. However, only a few best suppliers will allow you to verify claims by visiting their factories.
Final Thoughts
Crab sticks are indeed a cost-effective alternative to crab meats. Not only is imitation crab affordable, but it is also tasty and can be eaten on its own or conveniently incorporated into a variety of multi-cultural recipes..
At Thong Siek Global, we offer frozen and chilled surimi- based seafood products that are safely processed under stringent requirements in a state of the art 150,000 square feet modern facility in Singapore, and another factory in Malaysia. Our products not only include crab sticks, but we have also pioneered in curating innovative varieties of seafood products with a uniquely Singapore twist, such as cheese tofu fish cake, ngoh hiang meat roll, cuttlefish, sliced abalone, breaded scallop nugget. and many more.
We have been awarded multiple accolades and certifications, notably the highest-grade AA in the BRC Global Standard for Food Safety in 2020, the SFA Food Safety Grade A Gold Award for the past two decades, and also Halal Certification for seafood products by the Muslim Religious Council of Singapore.
Working together in a balance of innovation and tradition, our commitment to be best-in-class and surpass industry benchmarks has positioned us globally as a leading manufacturer, distributor, and retailer of surimi-based seafood products.
Learn more about our complete line of products here or leave us a message at enquiry@thongsiek.com.
