Male mussels are a creamy white colour and females are a bright orange colour.

Live mussels like to be kept cool and damp. Refrigerate 0-5^OC.

Do not freeze live mussels as this affects the quality of the meat. If you do not wish to eat immediately then steam cook the mussels, remove the cooked meat from the shell and freeze the cooked meat. This can then be defrosted and re-heated into your favourite dish at a later date.

Absolutely! It is estimated that over 370 tonnes of perfectly good mussels are thrown away each year due to this myth!

It is quite common for healthy mussels to hold on to their shell and refuse to open. Although, most of the time, heat does disintegrate the abductor muscle (muscle not mussel) that holds the shells together, heat can also cause the muscle to seize and remain shut. It may be a seasonal influence when the shellfish are stronger than normal.

Shellfish that do not open after they have been cooked is not an indicator that they are bad.

Providing these mussels were alive prior to cooking they will still be fine to eat. Just pry them open with a knife and enjoy!

That is the beard or byssal thread. It is a strong filament that many shellfish excrete to attach themselves onto rocks or ropes.

Although we make every effort to try to remove beards, there may be some remaining. These are easy to remove by hand prior to cooking and even easier to remove once cooked.

These are called pea crabs, tiny critters that live inside oysters and mussels and eat algae that collect on the gills of the shellfish.

Because they are not very good swimmers pea crabs prefer to inhabit shellfish growing in sheltered bays. Due to the cold fast current that sweeps through in our deep ocean farm pea crabs are rarely found in Spring Bay mussels.

Although many chefs and diners find them unappetizing or a nuisance, they are considered a culinary delicacy! In 1907, The New York Times published an article titled “A Rare Delicacy, Little Known” and called pea crabs “one of the sweetest and quaintest viands known to man… so generally neglected that more than 50 per cent of the people who think they know something about good eating have never tasted the dish.”

So, if you don’t feel like being adventurous and giving them a try, just flick the little critters out your dish.

Some period of the year the mussel shells can weaken, causing an increase in breakages. A cracked mussel would still be safe to eat.

It is common for mussel to gape when taken out of water, although prolonged gaping can dry them out and shorten their shelf life. Tap the shell of the mussel and it should slowly close.

If the mussels are chilled and dormant it may take them a bit longer to close. If the mussels do not close then discard.

Mussels are one of the most sustainable forms of protein requiring no feed and no input in farming. They feed off naturally occurring algae. Because they are suspended on ropes they have minimal impact on the surrounding ecology.

Tasmania has one of the cleanest waters in the world with our farm bordering Maria Island marine reserve. We test the seawater and our mussels for heavy metals to meet the strict regulatory standards and have found our mussels to be deliciously clean and pure.