We recommend thawing seafood for overnight, or for about 8 hours, in the refrigerator. For quick thawing, place in a colander under cold running water for 3-5 minutes or until thawed. Once your seafood is thawed, pat it dry with a paper towel, and cook right away.

This is probably the question we get most often and a question that has an incredibly intricate, multi-dimensional answer. BOTH fresh and frozen can be excellent options, depending on a variety of factors. For fresh seafood, you must evaluate:
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1) The starting quality of the fresh fish in question
2) How it was caught and handled while at sea
3) How long it was at sea
4) How it was processed and sold

‍For frozen seafood, it depends on:
1) The starting quality of the seafood being frozen
2) HOW the seafood was frozen (slow or quick frozen)

Advancements in “Flash Freezing” technology have revolutionized frozen seafood, making it possible to retain it's natural freshness, nutrients, texture, and flavor without compromising quality.

Fresh doesn’t inherently equate to superior quality, just like frozen doesn't always mean inferior quality. There is a lot that can happen between time of catch, the time you are purchasing at the store level, and the time you are finally cooking.

When buying fresh seafood, it is important to purchase from a trusted supplier or retailer and evaluate quality.

Here’s a trick from our Chef: “All you need is a small wooden skewer. Simply push the flat end through the middle of the fish – it should go through to the bottom easily with no resistance. If there is resistance, this means it is still slightly raw on the inside, and you need to cook it a couple of minutes longer. No resistance means you are good to go! And remember – your fish will keep cooking for a couple of minutes after you remove it from cooking, referred to as “carry over cooking”. Be mindful of this to get your seafood to exactly the right doneness you desire. Check out our video on this, right here.

- Traditional freezing is slow and happens over several hours, which causes large ice crystals to form that damage cell walls and can give frozen food a mushy texture.
- State of the art Flash Freezing technology uses liquid nitrogen at temperatures as low as -160°F to freeze seafood instantaneously.
- This preserves intrinsic freshness, texture, and flavor until the time it is thawed. We freeze all of our Naked Seafood at -160°F.
- So when you taste that Naked Scallop that was frozen at sea within minutes of catch, you can be confident that what you are eating is the highest quality seafood, just minutes out of the sea.
- This means that in many circumstances, Naked flash frozen seafood is fresher than fresh!

- Lowers risk of heart disease and stroke
‍- Improves sleep quality and mental health – Reducing symptoms of depression, anxiety
- Helps to improve memory and cognition – Can slow the progression of Alzheimer’s disease
- Fights Autoimmune diseases
- Can improve skin, bone and joint health – Reducing tissue inflammation, alleviating symptoms of Rheumatoid Arthritis
‍- Linked to strengthening eye health – Slowing progression of age-related Macular Degeneration
- Promotes infant brain development during pregnancy and infancy – Linked to higher IQ
- Linked with healthier aging

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the American Heart Association (AHA) both recommend that you should be eating fish two to three times per week, a minimum of 8 ounces, in order to maintain a healthy diet.
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Every five years, the USDA revises their Dietary Guidelines and each time seafood gets a bigger shout out for being a nutritional powerhouse. This recommendation was reinforced in the 2020-2025 Dietary Guidelines for Americans and is also supported by the American Heart Association (AHA). View them here.

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We are proud to work with a number of local and international sustainability organizations – such as Best Aquaculture Practices, Aquaculture Stewardship Council and Marine Stewardship Council – to ensure that our seafood is environmentally responsible.
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BEST AQUACULTURE PRACTICES (BAP)
‍US-based non-profit managing a widely used certification and labeling program for responsible aquaculture.
Their Pillars of Sustainability are:
- Environmental Responsibility
- Food Safety
- Animal Health and Welfare
- Social Responsibility

‍AQUACULTURE STEWARDSHIP COUNCIL (ASC)
Independent, international non-profit managing the world's leading certification and labeling program for responsible aquaculture.
- Protects surrounding ecosystems + biodiversity
- Mandate strict criteria for sustainable feed
- Preserves the quality of the water
- Sets strict controls for the use of antibiotics

‍MARINESTEWARDSHIP COUNCIL (MSC)
‍An international non-profit organization that sets the global gold standard for wild seafood sustainability (from a whole ecosystem approach). Each MSC Certified fishery has been independently assessed on its impact to wild fish populations. This label means we are actively:
- Protecting our oceans from overfishing
- Supporting fishing communities
- Promoting seafood transparency and traceability

By definition, the raising of aquatic organisms from juvenile through adult stage under carefully controlled conditions.
- Aquaculture is the fastest-growing means of food production worldwide, according to NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration), accounting for more than half of all seafood consumed by humans.
- Used to rebuild wild stocks for recreational and commercial fisheries.
- Reduces pressure on depleted wild fish stocks and contributes to sustaining these resources for future generations.
- Allows for better control of quality, size, and flavor profile.

‍It is important to remember that just like farm-raised chicken – there are good farms and bad farms. Naked Seafood is committed to sourcing only from Certified Sustainable operations through our partnerships with the Best Aquaculture Practices (BAP) and the Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) to ensure the highest quality process and end product.

Before diving into the particulars of overfishing, stocking density, and other important aspects of seafood sustainability, let’s zoom out and focus on the big picture: virtually all forms of seafood contribute less to global warming and environmental degradation than beef and pork. If you want to help the planet with a no-brainer, totally uncomplicated dietary modification, swap out that pork chop or T-bone for seafood of virtually any description.

That said, some seafood is exceptionally sustainable - mollusks, wild fish from well-managed fisheries, and herbivorous farmed fish like tilapia raised without chemical or antibiotic use are good examples.

‍Simply put - sustainable seafood means seafood that is caught, farmed, or harvested using environmentally harmonious and socially responsible methods that does not jeopardize long term ocean health or stability of the species in question. Sustainability is crucial to ensure continued availability of seafood for future generations.

Both wild and farmed seafood can be sustainable. With seafood consumption rising worldwide, well-managed ocean-raised (farmed) fish can take pressure off wild fisheries, where 90% of wild fish stocks are harvested at full capacity.

‍For Wild Caught Seafood, sustainability means the populations are well-managed and not overfished, and the fishing method has minimal impact on habitat and other wildlife (limiting bycatch and minimizing damage to marine habitats).

Fisheries in the US, Canada, and Europe are well-managed by government authorities. So, for New Englanders, local fish is reliably sustainable, as overexploited local stocks such as cod aren’t open to commercial fishing.

‍For Aquaculture, sustainability means minimizing impacts to the environment by limiting habitat damage, pollution, escapes of farmed fish and using sustainable feed ingredients.

Contrary to popular belief, not all farmed salmon, for instance, is raised in pens stocked so tightly that their living conditions are dirty. In Norway, where some of the world’s best salmon is raised, pens are sparsely stocked, so the fish have plenty of room to swim around; the tides flowing in and out of Norwegian fjords are vigorous, washing huge quantities of perfectly clean water through the pens every day.