Mussels - The Ins and Outs

Mussels are bivalve shells inhabiting lakes, rivers and coastline areas worldwide. They have two identically shaped external shells joined on one side by an elastic tissue. Like most bivalves, mussels are filter feeders.


They suck in water through their incurrent siphon, filtering small particles like phytoplancton, zooplancton and other organic matter. Any unnecessary particles are discarded and exit the mussel's digestive system and the nutritional materials left continue their way towards the stomach where everyhting is digested.

Mussels are capable of obtaining all the nutrition they need by themselves from their surrounding environment, so they need not be additionally fed.

Black mussel meat is very tender and nutritious. It contains around 8-10% easily digestiable proteins, 1-1,5% fats, 1,5-3,5% carbohydrates (mainly glycogen), mineral substances (K, P, L, P and others), vitamins - A, B1, B2 and others. Mussels are often used in exquisite dishes. Adding mussels to a dish gives it a twist that will make it melt in your mouth. A small amount ot black mussels, fried with 1-2 cloves of garlic, put atop a salad make an elegant dish for any high class restaurant.

Product	Black Mussels
kcal/100 g	48
Fats, g	1
Proteins, g	11
Carbohydrates, g	0

All constructing and servicing operations of the long lines, spat collection and sorting, retubing and returning the spat in the water for further growing, harvesting, sorting the mussels, cleaning the mussels and packaging them in bags is done onboard a specially designed and constructed for the mussel farm working boat. The boat is equipped with modern and specifically designed for the purpose of mussel farming machinery and other gear.

While undergoing all the aforementioned operations the mussels do not come into contact with sand and/or other contaminants, or any toxic substances which would make the crop contaminated or otherwise compromised. Mussel cleaning operations are done through mechanical means, so there is no leftover material or substances which would contaminate or otherwise pose a threat to the purity of the waters in the region. Any artificial materials which are left over in the production process are collected in containers and disposed of properly.

During the process of cultivation, transport, processing and storing of the mussels, strict sanitary standards are being observed, as per Bulgarian law and regulation, as well as conforming to European requirements, directives and standards.

The new fully automated technology enables us to cultivate mussels in industrial quantities with a waste-free technological cycle, thus yielding high quality crop in an efficient manner, in conformance with EU requirements for steadfast utilization of live marine resources.

A key factor affecting production capacities are the meteorological conditions. The industry standard size for ready-to-eat mussels is over 40 mm. Reaching this size takes between 10 and 12 months from introducing the collector in the water. The “mussels with shell-to-edible meat” ratio goes as high as 5 to 1 (5 kg of mussels with shell are needed to get 1 kg of pure mussel meat).

The breakdown of mussel production is as follows: winter period – 28.5%, spring period – 26,6%, autumn period – 22,13%, summer period – 25,5%, average – 25,7%.