WHAT IS HPP LOBSTER?

What HPP Lobster Is and Why a Lot of People Have Never Heard of It

A lot of people have never heard of HPP lobster.

That’s not surprising. For most home consumers, lobster has traditionally come in two forms: live and whole, or fully cooked. High pressure processing created a third option, but it’s still relatively unfamiliar outside the seafood industry.

HPP lobster isn’t better than other lobster formats. It’s different. And it exists to solve a very specific problem: how to remove lobster meat cleanly from the shell while keeping it raw.

HPP stands for high pressure processing. It’s a method that uses pressure instead of heat or chemicals. In the case of lobster, it allows the meat to separate cleanly from the shell without cooking it.

That distinction matters.

What high pressure processing actually does

With HPP, whole lobsters are placed into a sealed chamber filled with water. The system applies extremely high pressure evenly throughout the chamber for a short period of time.

There’s no boiling, steaming, or cooking involved. The temperature stays low.

What the pressure does is loosen the connective tissue that holds the meat to the shell. Once that bond is released, the meat can be removed cleanly and in whole pieces.

From a food standpoint, nothing is added and nothing is taken away. The lobster remains raw. The flavor is unchanged. The texture stays intact.

The only thing that changes is how easily the meat comes out of the shell.

Where HPP came from

High pressure processing has been used in food production for decades. It was originally developed as a way to improve food safety and shelf life without relying on heat, which can alter texture and flavor.

Seafood processors later realized that the same pressure technology could be used to shuck shellfish. For lobster and crab, this was a major breakthrough. It improved yield, reduced waste, and made it possible to extract whole pieces of meat more consistently.

Over time, HPP became a way to offer raw lobster meat in a format that had previously been limited mostly to live lobster or restaurant kitchens.

How HPP lobster compares to other lobster formats

Most lobster available to home consumers still falls into two main categories:

1. Live or whole lobster, which requires boiling, cracking, and manual extraction

2. Pre-cooked lobster meat, which has already been cooked before it reaches your kitchen

HPP lobster creates a third option.

Because the meat stays raw during processing, the person cooking it still controls the final result. That makes HPP lobster well suited for people who want to cook lobster from raw and control texture and doneness themselves.

At the same time, pre-cooked lobster serves a different purpose. It’s about speed, consistency, and convenience. When cooked properly, pre-cooked lobster delivers excellent flavor with minimal effort and very predictable results.

Neither format is better. They’re designed for different use cases.

How we use HPP at PrimeFish

At PrimeFish, we think about lobster in terms of formats, not hierarchies.

HPP is one tool we use alongside fully cooked products, depending on how the lobster is meant to be used at home.

Our HPP lobster products are all raw and designed for customers who want to cook lobster themselves without dealing with shell removal:

• Raw HPP lobster tail meat for clean, shell-free cooking

• Raw HPP claw and knuckle meat for dishes like pasta, risotto, or butter-poached preparations

• HPP in-shell lobster tails for customers who want the presentation of a tail with easier extraction

These products give home cooks flexibility and control, especially if they enjoy cooking lobster from raw.

Separately, our LUXPACK™ Lobster Claw Meat is fully cooked and designed for a different experience. It’s about simplicity, speed, and consistency. It’s ready to use, easy to portion, and ideal for lobster rolls, salads, and quick meals where you don’t want to think about technique or timing.

Both formats exist because people cook lobster in different ways.

Why HPP matters for home cooks

Cooking lobster at home has always come with friction. It’s expensive, messy, and easy to overcook or mishandle.

HPP reduces some of that friction without changing what lobster is.

For home cooks, that means:

• Easier extraction with no shell cracking

• Whole pieces instead of shredded meat

• The ability to cook lobster from raw when desired

• More predictable outcomes and less waste

At the same time, fully cooked lobster remains the right choice when convenience and speed matter most.

The goal isn’t to replace one format with another. It’s to give people better options.

The bigger takeaway

Lobster has always been considered a premium food, but the home experience hasn’t evolved much over time. High pressure processing is one of the few technologies that meaningfully improves that experience without turning lobster into something artificial or over-processed.

It doesn’t add flavor. It doesn’t disguise quality. It doesn’t shortcut cooking.

It simply makes lobster easier to work with in certain situations.

That’s why HPP plays a role in how we approach lobster at PrimeFish, alongside carefully cooked products like our LUXPACK™ Lobster Claw Meat. Different formats, different needs, same goal: better lobster at home.