EZ Peel, dry-packed, skin-off, Ocean Wise, MSC, and more. A plain-language glossary of the terms you'll see across Ocean2Table's catalog.
On this page 4
Seafood packaging and product listings use a lot of shorthand that makes sense in the industry but isn't always obvious to a home cook. This is a reference for the terms that show up across Ocean2Table's catalog.
Cuts and formats
Fillets: the boneless side of a fish, cut lengthwise away from the backbone. The most common, versatile cut.
Portions: pre-cut, evenly sized pieces from a fillet, useful because they cook more predictably than a single large fillet of varying thickness.
Skin-on / skin-off: whether the skin is left on the fillet. Skin-on crisps up well when pan-seared and helps hold delicate fillets together; skin-off is more versatile for methods where you don't want the skin at all.
Cheeks: a small, distinct muscle from the head of the fish (most commonly used for halibut), prized for its tender, almost scallop-like texture, different from a standard fillet cut.
Tails (as in lobster tails): the tail section of the animal, sold separately from the whole body, the most common way lobster is sold for home cooking.
Packing and handling terms
EZ Peel: shrimp that have been partially deveined and had the shell split down the back to make peeling faster and easier at home, while the shell stays on for cooking (which helps flavour and moisture).
Dry-packed (scallops): scallops that have not been treated with a chemical solution to extend shelf life and add water weight. Dry-packed scallops sear properly because there's no excess moisture in the way; the alternative, wet-packed, tends to steam rather than sear.
Vacuum-packed: sealed in an airtight package with the air removed, which extends freezer life and reduces freezer burn risk.
Flash-frozen: frozen rapidly at commercial temperatures shortly after catch or harvest, which locks in quality close to catch-day condition, different from the slower freezing a home freezer does.
Certifications and standards
Ocean Wise Recommended: a Canadian-founded sustainability recommendation and partnership program (founded 2005 by the Vancouver Aquarium) that assesses whether a fishery or farming operation is managed sustainably.
MSC Certified: Marine Stewardship Council certification, an internationally recognized, independently audited sustainability standard for wild-catch fisheries, founded in the late 1990s by WWF and Unilever and independent since 1999.
SQF Certified: Safe Quality Food certification, administered by SQFI, an independently audited food safety and quality management standard covering more than 14,000 sites worldwide.
HACCP: Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point, a systematic food safety framework that identifies and controls hazards at every step of a process rather than only testing the finished product. The universal baseline food safety approach used across the food industry, including by regulators.
CFIA: the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, the federal regulator every Canadian food business operates under by law. Not a certification a company earns, the baseline regulatory authority.
Species-adjacent terms
Wild-caught: caught in open water rather than raised in a farm or aquaculture operation.
Farmed: raised in a controlled aquaculture environment rather than caught in the wild. Not a lesser product by default, farming is how species like steelhead trout and some salmon are consistently available.
Sablefish: the correct species name for what's commonly sold as "black cod." Not actually a cod.
Bone-out: a fillet that has had the pin bones removed, ready to cook without checking for bones yourself.
Have a term you don't see here? Contact us and we'll add it.
