Horse mackerel

A label covering several marine species of the mackerel family (Carangidae) in the genera Trachurus and Decapterus. Key species are the Atlantic horse mackerel (Trachurus trachurus), the Pacific horse mackerel (T. japonicus), and Decapterus macarellus. They sell fresh and frozen, and also dried-salted, smoked, or canned, and they are also called jack mackerel and scad. As oily fish they are nutritious but highly perishable, demanding strict cold-chain control from catch to consumer, and their histidine-rich flesh makes rapid chilling doubly necessary to prevent scombroid-type histamine formation.