Cockles
Everybody knows the cockle for its shell. Take a look, for instance, at our logo: after all, it is the most common shell to be found on the beach. The cockle (Cardium Edule) is a little shellfish with a characteristic orange-yellow tip, which can be found in the shallow river estuaries of the European Coast. In the Netherlands, cockles are found in the Zeeland estuaries, as well as in the Wadden Sea.
Cockles live just underneath the sand, usually not deeper than 2 centimetres and do not grow older than 4-5 years. Through a so-called siphon, the cockle pumps the water over his gills and thus filters out the nutrients (suspended material and plankton) from the water. A two-year old cockle on average pumps half a litre water per hour through its gills. It is funny to realize that this means that the total cockle population processes the entire volume of the sea in only a few weeks time. As a shellfish, the cockle is hardly known in the Netherlands. This as opposed to Spain and other South-European countries, where it is perhaps one of the most famous 'tapas', very popular because of its sweet-salty taste.
Canned cockles
The majority of our cockles (approximately 80%) is canned. This means that the cockles that are boiled on the vessels are submitted to a sterilisation procedure directly upon arrival to our factory, so that they can be preserved for five years. Landa Conserven offers three traditional sizes of canned cockles: (club) 120 ml, (ro) 200 ml and (ro) 274 ml, with a shelf life of five years. Apart from the size of the cans, a distinction is made between the sizes of the cockles, whereby the number of cockles per can is decisive.
Landa Conserven has the following sizes and qualities of canned cockles in its assortment:
| Product | No. of cockles per can | Can (club) 120 ml | Can (ro) 200ml | Can (ro) 274 ml |
 |
| Cockles in brine | small | v | - | v | |
| Cockles in brine | 80 - 110 | - | v | - | |
| Cockles in brine | 60 - 70 | v | - | - | |
| Cockles in brine | 50 - 60 | v | - | - | |
| Cockles in brine | 40 - 50 | v | - | - | |
| Cockles in brine | 30 - 40 | v | - | - |
Frozen
The cockles we process as quick-frozen are the same cockles, already boiled, that we receive for canning. We wash them thoroughly in our factory, after which they are frozen with nitrogen. The use of nitrogen makes it possible to freeze the cockles in only a small amount of time, as a result of which the quality is preserved.
Clams
Just like cockles, clams (Venerupis Veriegata) are bivalve shellfish popular not only in Southern Europe, but also in North America. Unlike cockles, clams are not processed in-house, but only imported and exported by Landa Conserven.
Whitebait
Whitebaits (Sprattus Sprattus) live in larges schools, usually close to the Atlantic coasts from North Morocco to the British Islands and Ireland (North Sea) and from the Norwegian fjords to the Mediterranean Sea. Landa Conserven imports and exports only quick-frozen Whitebait.