Crown Prince Seafood Blog

Crown Prince Seafood is pleased to announce another annual participation in the Canstruction Orange County Event. And yes, you read that right: canstruction, not construction. The Canstruction OC Event is a fun, Orange County and internationally based community service project created by the construction and design industry as a co-effort to benefit local food banks. In the Canstruction OC event, teams of engineers, architects, contractors, and designers as well as professional mentors for students, businesses and other associations take part in a competition. Each team comes up with its own design and builds a creation entirely out of canned foods. The result? Watch this Canstruction OC video featuring the 2011 Best Meal & People’s Choice Winner “Lending a Hand to Bag Hunger.”           

This year, we’ve donated our Crown Prince Fancy White Crab Meat to the 2012 Canstruction OC project. Voting officially begins for the 2012 Canstruction Orange County People’s Choice Award on Saturday, September 1, 2012.  The last vote will be counted on Friday, September 14, 2012 at 5pm. Canstruction has changed this year’s voting from Facebook to an online voting site. Look for voting information on the Canstruction OC website or Facebook page this Saturday. One vote is allowed per valid e-mail address. Follow Canstruction on Facebook for updates on the voting results. The official winner will be announced at the Canstruction Awards and Fundraising Gala on Sunday, September 16, 2012.

20 teams begin building their works of art tonight!  We’re excited to see how our Fancy White Crab Meat will benefit the project.

Hot flashes and night sweats are two of the most common – and most complained about – symptoms of menopause. For women looking to lessen these discomforts without (or perhaps in addition to) using hormone replacement therapy, a new study has quite encouraging news. 

Led by Candyce Kroenke of the Kaiser Permanente Northern California Division of Research, the study found that menopause symptoms reduced or disappeared amongst women who lost 10 pounds by eating a diet low in fat and high in fruits and vegetables. 

The healthy diet and weight loss combination positively impacted symptoms across the course of a year, the study found. And interestingly, the slight drop in weight benefited women of all sizes: those identified as within and above healthy weight both enjoyed lower symptoms when compared to the control group, who did not change their diet or weight. 

Advocates of healthy eating have long recommended seafood as a healthy, low-fat source of protein, and this study is one more reason to incorporate foods such as tuna and salmon into one’s diet. Many seafood items, such as sardines, also provide heart-healthy omega-3 fatty acids. And now, with this recent study, we have reason to believe that reducing heavier, fattier meats in favor of lighter, healthier alternatives adds yet another health benefit to the long and growing list: reduced menopausal symptoms.

For fans of our pouch-packed sardines, which were unveiled last fall, a great snack just got even better. These tasty, nutrient-rich morsels are now packaged in new-and-improved easy-open pouches.

Innovative Seafood Packaging

“The packaging is designed to be light in weight and minimal in material,” said Dustan Hoffman, President. “We wanted to create something that was convenient, efficient, and of the highest quality.”

We recently implemented an even more stringent packing process to ensure that the products inside would be more uniform, with firmer fish and fewer scales. Our revised packing perfects the retorting process (to make sure the fish are not over-cooked in the pouch), and the outer portion of the packing results in less direct handling of packages on their journey to grocery shelves nationwide.

National Availability, 4 Great Flavors

Crown Prince Pouch-Packed Sardines come in four delectable flavors:

• Lightly Smoked – in Soy Bean Oil
• No Salt Added – in Spring Water
• Spicy – in Louisiana Hot Sauce
• Traditional – in Mustard

They are available nationwide at Wal-Mart stores, and regionally in Kroger – Dallas, Dillons – Kansas City, King Soopers – Denver, City Markets – Colorado, Stop & Shop – New England and New York Metro, Giant – Mid Atlantic Region, and Martin’s – Mid Atlantic Region.

Sardines and Health

Our sardines are packed with heart-healthy omega-3 fatty acids, with each pouch providing 0.93 grams per serving. Each serving also offers 16 grams or more of protein, with a modest 10 grams or fewer of fat.

Between those nutritional benefits and the variety of flavors, it’s easy to incorporate Crown Prince Pouch-Packed Sardines into a meal, mid-day snack, or sustenance out on the hiking trail.

Earlier this month, the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced a ban on using bisphenol A (BPA) in baby bottles and cups. BPA has been used to harden plastic containers and line tin cans since the 1960s, allowing food to remain safe longer. However, there has been growing concern about the chemical, which is an endocrine disruptor; it mimics estrogen when absorbed by the body. Public concern had already pushed industry manufacturers of baby bottles and cups to move away from the chemical.

While the FDA maintains that BPA does not post a health risk, Crown Prince Seafood is dedicated to providing the safest, freshest, most sustainable seafood possible. We recognize that many of our customers prefer BPA-free canned goods.

To support this, we have over the past several years been pursuing the removal of BPA from the cans of as many of our products as possible. However, it is not always easy to do:

The Crown Prince, Crown Prince Natural, and Ocean Prince lines include product packed in eight foreign countries as well as the United States. We therefore have to work in each locality with available canning materials. Several countries from which we import are strongly influenced by European Union (EU) standards; at this time the EU does not consider the small amount of BPA in can linings a health issue.

Due to this fact many can manufacturers in these countries do not stock adequate or consistent supplies, if at all, of BPA free cans. Crown Prince wishes to continue to be able to provide our customers good quality, modestly priced canned seafood with as little environmental impact as possible. Shipping empty BPA free cans thousands of extra miles, if they are unavailable locally, will add to our products’ price as well as to the degradation of the environment. We will seek to transition all of our products to BPA-free as the correct packing materials become available.

This comes from our official statement on BPA, which is the best place to find up-to-date information on our quest to remove BPA from our product line – including a current list of all of our products that are packaged without BPA free cans.

Are plastic bags really and truly an environmental threat?  California must think so, since over 48 cities in CA have banned plastic bags from the area.  We all know what happens: the occasional plastic bag stuck in a tree, on top of a fence, in a pond, endangering marine and freshwater wildlife.  But consider this—how do they GET there?  Do bags just float off the factory finish line by themselves and land like kites in trees, or like logs in ponds?  It’s a silly thought.  Of course they don’t.  Humans have put them where they are.  Car doors left open on a windy day, a bag thrown by the wayside after a Subway sandwich is consumed.  Instead of deprivation, have we ever considered education?

Irresponsible Users > Plastic Bags

So, here is the great bag debate.  The question: Is it better to use paper or reusable bags instead of plastic?  And here are the answers (however, you could technically call them more questions):

Choose to Re-use

Are you really choosing the environment when you buy reusable bags?  You do save by producing less trash, but are you actually using them?  Bringing them to the store can be the biggest challenge, since even yours truly often forgets to place bags back in the car once the groceries are unloaded.  As we speak, they remain on the garage shelf now.  Convenience is huge!  We like foldable bags, bags that save on storage space and bags that are easy to tote around.

Besides actually remembering to reuse, there’s also another danger: bacteria exposure from dirty reusable bags.  Choose a washable canvas bag that can be cleaned up regularly.  Make sure it’s sturdy too.  If the handles break, it will just end up in the garbage (and that’s not very green).

Paper Perception

What do you do if the reusable bags are forgotten, and you are faced with the question: “Paper or plastic?”  Sure, most people think paper is the greener choice.  But it all depends on how you look at it.  Are we talking about recycling?  Yes, paper is greener.  Paper is much more convenient to recycle, therefore more of it gets recycled.  But if we’re talking production, paper isn’t so green.  It takes 40% more energy (which releases more greenhouse gases, air and water pollution) to manufacture paper bags than plastic, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.  It also takes more energy to transport paper bags because they are heavier than plastic.  That’s not all: they’re a lot more difficult to carry, and even with handles you risk a tear if you overload them.

Plastic Pandemonium

Here comes the notorious plastic bag.  Convenient, compact, lightweight and reusable.  They’re used at least one more time before they’re tossed out.  That, my friends is the big problem.  The “toss out.”  Recycle, Recycle, Recycle!  I can’t express enough how important it is to recycle those plastic bags.  Did you know that over 100 billion plastic bags are used by U.S. shoppers per year, but only a very small percentage of them are reused?  To most people, recycling is simply inconvenient, since most curbside programs won’t take them.  It’s easier than you think.  Most grocery stores (along with drug stores, Target, Wal-Mart, etc) have recycle bins for all types of plastic bags.  Simply drop them off.

Are you more confused than ever? All three have their pros and cons.  Ultimately, it comes down to us being more responsible as a culture.  It’s up to each and every one of us as a collective society to be aware of the impact we have on the environment.  It’s up to you to realize that you do make a difference.  Whatever choice you make, let it be a responsible and educated choice.  If you choose reusable bags, remember to bring them and keep them clean.  If you use paper or plastic, remember to recycle. 

You can bag up that advice, take it home and recycle it by sharing it with others!