Food trend: The rise of low-fat crabmeat

Two entrepreneurial Cornish brothers are on a mission: to make crabmeat our national dish. They just might succeed...

Brothers Richard Corner and Neville Pittman are crab evangelists and they want you to hear the word.

 

Seven years ago, Neville was the skipper of a crab boat and had a serious fishing accident. Richard had recently returned from backpacking, so rushed down to Cornwall to help him. As Neville was unable to fish and Richard had left his corporate job in London to travel, they decided the time was right to try something different.

 

 

Surviving off groceries donated by the Fishermen's Mission and money from odd jobs, such as picking daffodils, the brothers saw a gap in the market for quality, hand-picked crabs. They bought crabs off the Newlyn fishing boats, cooked them in a boiler made from half a beer barrel in their rented house in St Erth, hand-picked the meat and sold it to local pubs and restaurants.

 

Word soon spread of their quality product and a fish merchant offered them his industrial unit for a nominal rent. It was the boost they needed and, with a grant from the Prince's Trust, the brothers bought two stainless-steel tables and a professional boiler, and employed local fishermen and their girlfriends to help with the picking. Their company, Seafood & Eat It, was hatched. 

 

 

Richard and Neville discovered their niche market at an opportune time. Sales of crabmeat in Britain have doubled in the past three years, partly because health-conscious shoppers are aware of its low levels of fat and cholesterol. The industry, thankfully, isn't suffering from over-fishing, as sustainable practices were introduced in the late 19th century. Despite winning a big contract with Waitrose in late 2007, Seafood & Eat It has remained a small business with an artisan feel.

 

Richard now runs the London end of the business, pasteurising, packaging and delivering the crab from a converted recording studio on Platts Eyot, an island on the Thames. He has developed a special spice mix for Handpicked Potted Cornish Crab (£2.99 for 100g), which is sold at Waitrose alongside Handpicked White Cornish Crab (£4.99 for 100g) and Handpicked Brown Cornish Crab (£2.49 for 110g). So what's next for the brothers? 'It's simple,' they grin, the evangelist's gleam back in their eyes. 'We want to make crab Britain's national dish.' You read it here first!

 

Seafood & Eat It products are available at Waitrose.

 

COAST'S PERFECT CRABMEAT RECIPE - Crab and asparagus tart

 

 

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