The can doesn’t lie. But it doesn’t tell the whole story either.
Spain is the second largest producer of canned fish and seafood in the world, only behind China. Galicia is, according to ANFACO-CECOPESCA data, the Autonomous Community with the greatest relevance in this industry at national level, both in turnover and in employment and exports.
Behind this volume there is a very broad spectrum of products. From mass-produced preserves with imported raw materials to limited-production artisanal preserves with certified local products. They all have the same name on the label: “canned fish and seafood”. The differences, however, are substantial.
The origin of the raw material
In industrial-scale canning, the raw material may come from offshore fleets, from intensive aquaculture in different areas, or from imports. The exact origin is not always traceable for the final consumer, and labeling legislation allows certain margins.
In an artisanal canned product of certified origin, the raw material has a specific and verifiable starting point. A mussel with the PDO Mejillón de Galicia can only come from a mussel pan in the Rías Baixas. A sardine with pescadeRías seal was landed in a Galician port and caught no more than 24 hours before its first sale.
This difference in origin directly affects the taste, texture and consistency of the product: a mussel raised in Atlantic water with coastal upwelling does not have the same organoleptic characteristics as one raised in different conditions. The sea where the product is grown matters.
The process: time and scale
Industrial production works at speeds that artisanal production cannot and does not pretend to reach. This is not necessarily a defect: technology has advanced greatly and hygienic and conservation conditions are rigorous at all levels.
The difference is in the margins allowed by each scale.
In an artisanal cannery with a limited production run, it is possible to devote to the product an attention that the industrial scale cannot afford. At Bongarth, for example, each mussel is cleaned by hand: the byssus – the beards with which the mollusk is anchored to the rope of the pan – is removed one by one, ensuring that each piece arrives in the can in perfect condition. That level of detail is not compatible with mass production. Not because it is not wanted, but because time and volume do not allow it.
The result is not always noticeable, but in products with a great deal of natural variability – such as bivalve mollusks, whose flavor changes according to the season, the state of the sea and the point of maturity – the artisanal margin produces a qualitative consistency that the industrial scale finds difficult to match.
The season: the factor that makes the biggest difference
In industrial production, the season is a logistical factor. In quality artisanal production, the season determines everything.
The Galician sardine has an optimal point of fat between the summer months, when it has accumulated sufficient energy reserve. The Ría de Arousa sardine has a regulated fishing season, with annual management plans published in the Diario Oficial de Galicia (Official Gazette of Galicia). The PDO mussels have fattening and purification cycles before being processed.
An artisanal cannery that works with seasonal produce and certified origin is, to a certain extent, capturing a specific moment of the year and of that ecosystem. This is what makes a limited edition make sense beyond marketing: there is a productive reality behind it.
What does not appear on the label
The label of a canned food informs about what the law requires: ingredients, nutritional values, generic origin, expiration date. It does not inform whether the fish was caught artisanally or industrially, whether the raw material underwent additional quality controls beyond the mandatory sanitary ones, or whether there is real traceability between the sea and the can.
This information exists, but you have to look for it. It is in the seals: DOP, pescadeRías, IGP. It is in the regulatory bodies that manage them and publish their records. And it is, ultimately, in the producer’s decision to submit or not to these voluntary control systems.
It is not mandatory to have a PDO to sell canned mussels. Neither is it mandatory to have pescadeRías. They are voluntary seals, and that voluntariness says something about the priority that the producer gives to traceability.
Bongarth and that decision
We work with PDO mussels and with pescadeRías certified products precisely because we believe that traceability should not be an optional argument. For us it is the basis, not an add-on.
We work with PDO mussels and with pescadeRías certified products precisely because we believe that traceability should not be an optional argument. For us it is the basis, not an add-on. We do not produce in large volumes. Each edition is limited, with seasonal raw material and verifiable origin, because it is the only way to guarantee that what we put in the can reflects the care and respect for the product that this project demands from the beginning.