Nothing beats the taste of fresh crab meat. It is delicious and can be a good source of protein. Just like when shipping any food stuff, great care must be taken to ensure that the crab meat remains fresh throughout the transportation process. Crab meat spoils quite quickly whether fresh or cooked. Under refrigeration, it can only last two or three days but if properly wrapped and frozen, it will keep up to three months in the freezer.
When shipping cleaned crab meat (meat are already picked from the body and claws of cooked crabs), store it immediately in freezer bags and freeze at 0 degrees to -5 degrees. Label every package. Indicate the contents, date, weight, or other important information. Do not allow the package to stand at room temperature.
Ship only well-frozen crab meat. Wrap the frozen package in a plastic bag and place inside an insulated container. The plastic bag will prevent the package from getting direct contact with dry ice. Put dry ice on all sides and top of the crab meat. Fill extra spaces with newspaper to prevent the contents of the package from moving around. Seal the insulated container.
Place the insulated container in a shipping box. If there are extra spaces between the outer and inner container, fill them up with newspaper or packing peanuts. Close and seal the shipping box.
Attach address and labels such as “perishable” and take to your local post office. Choose overnight shipping or the fastest shipping option possible.
Notify the recipient about the shipment so they can immediately open the package upon receipt.
Note: Dry ice falls under “Class 9 Miscellaneous Hazardous Materials” so it must be handled properly and must be declared when used for shipping.