Heather Goral Thomas has joined Harvest of the Sea’s national sales team and will be handling the company’s business development activity for the Western Region.

If ever there was a Lent for seafood sellers to opt for buying and selling frozen seafood instead of fresh, it’s 2023. With labor, overall costs and supply chain issues continuing to hammer food operators and distributors, frozen seafood offers some welcome benefits that ease the pain. And customers are lining up to enjoy those benefits. As most food service outlets know, seafood sales soar an estimated 20% to 25% during Lent, and demand for seafood has been steadily rising overall.

It is no secret to those in the food service industry that Lent is the season of seafood. An estimated 23% of the U.S. population is Catholic, and about 62% don’t eat meat on Ash Wednesday or the seven Fridays. During these 40 days leading up to Easter, restaurant sales of seafood historically rise 20%.

The holidays are coming, and with them, the decorations, parties, shopping—and fear of overdoing it. For many, the stress of the season is augmented by worry that their efforts throughout the year to get in shape, eat healthily, and stay energized will be blown up in the last few weeks of the year. But 2022 doesn't have to end like this—if you add a good dose of seafood to your holiday plans.

If you are planning your Thanksgiving menu, this is the year to start a new tradition by trading in your traditional turkey for seafood. It’s been talked about before, but never have the reasons to switch to this affordable, easy-to-prepare—and yes, nutritious—option been more compelling than this year. Below are nine reasons to you’ll be thankful for serving seafood this Thanksgiving.

October is National Seafood Month! To honor this sea-licious food group, we thought you might find the following facts interesting about three of America’s favorite seafoods. Something to share with fellow diners!

If you own or manage a restaurant that serves shrimp, you will be interested in the recently released statistics (July 2022) by data collector Tastewise.com. If you are an owner of an eatery that doesn’t serve shrimp, these trends—and the deeper dive into their meaning that follows may change your mind and your menu.

GenZ'ers—the 83 million Americans born between 1995 and 2010—are the newest generation of restaurant diners. Based on the statistics, their tastes and eating habits bode well for restaurant owners, especially those offering seafood options.

Umami flavors are this summer’s food service blockbuster, and few sources satisfy this savory taste sensation better than shrimp!

While restaurateurs will forever remember 2020 as the year of the COVID-19 shutdown and 2021 as the “impaired” opening, 2022 will be noted for its soaring food costs and labor shortages.

In 2021, frozen seafood increased 4.1% in dollar sales year-over-year, hitting the $7.3 billion mark, according to the National Provisioner (NP) 2022 Seafood Report. This represents a 40.4% growth compared to two years ago.

May 10th is National Shrimp Day. It is a day to honor the nation's most beloved crustacean, which continues to outperform its oceanic peers. Consider:

With Mother’s Day just around the corner, it’s time to think of seafood. Of course, flowers are a great accompaniment, but below are five reasons why seafood is what the mother(s) in your life will really love—and they will love you for thinking of serving it.

March is a busy month with so many reasons to celebrate! Just coming off Mardi Gras is St. Patrick’s Day and, of course, the NCAA’s March Madness. To help balance these celebratory events, where eating right may not come naturally, March is also known as National Nutrition Month.

While anyone who has ever filled out a bracket for the annual NCAA college basketball tournament—aka March Madness —knows, a top-seeded team does not always emerge victorious. In fact, the odds are more in favor of an upset. One aspect of March Madness you can control, however, is the food you serve during the games.

Six out of 10 of the roughly 51 million adult Catholics in the United States abstain from eating meat on Fridays during Lent. A statistic much harder to find is how many of those six are short on time when it comes to preparing and cooking meatless meals at the end of a long week of work, volunteering, raising children or any of a zillion other demanding activities.

February has been American Heart Month since U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson first proclaimed it in 1964 and has been heavily promoted as such ever since by the American Heart Association (AHA). Of course, added to this month’s mix is Valentine’s Day, when it’s all about the heart as well as the upcoming season of Lent in March. This three-way intersection between heart, health, and Lent in the coming weeks presents a perfect opportunity for seafood retailers to promote their fare and create a faithful flock of seafood lovers for years to come.

For restaurants and other food service establishments, especially during these challenging times, a welcome “invention” has to be pre-portioned servings. These pre-weighed and packaged servings that ensure that each dish is consistent, create a distinct win-win: Diners get the uniform portions from plate to plate and for restaurant owners, a consistent serving size stops the overuse of ingredients, which can be expensive, especially for popular dishes.

If you haven’t heard about the Feast of the Seven Fishes, you probably didn’t grow up in an Italian-American household. Yet that is no reason you can’t join in the delectable tradition. After all, isn’t this a year where we could all use a bit more festivity—and seafood sales?

The pandemic initiated some exciting trends in food service besides the surge in take-out, bringing good news seafood sellers who cater to these 2021 tastes.