When choosing smoked fish, you need to be especially careful. The smell of smoked meat can mask the initial poor condition of the raw material, which can cause food poisoning, causing, for example, botulism.
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- smoked fish
Instruction manual
1
Be sure to smell the smoked fish before you buy it. If you feel the slightest hint of chemical perfumes, it is better to immediately abandon the purchase. Smoked fish of high quality produces the smell of wood smoke, while it should not be caustic, but gentle. If the fish does not smell at all, this is also a cause for concern, most likely, the smell had time to weather and the products were stale.
2
Examine the skin of the fish. If you saw on it a peculiar pattern of indented cells from the smoking network - this is a good sign, because it means that the processing of raw materials was of high quality and as natural as possible. The size of these cells does not matter. If the surface is rough to the touch, the color is uneven, most likely the fish is treated with chemical agents and you should not buy it.
3
Pay attention to damage to the fish skin: the presence of scratches, dents, etc. If all this takes place, then, it is obvious - the expired shelf life of the fish. There should not be light stripes on the sides of the fish, since they signal a violation of the technology of the smoking process. Such fish may not be sufficiently smoked and pose a threat of infection.
4
If you buy hot smoked fish, then take into account the fact that it should be easily separated from the bones. Cold smoked fish, on the contrary, should be dense, dry and lean. Do not panic if traces of white plaque appear on its surface; according to the rules, a large amount of salt is added to it.
5
Pay attention to the expiration date of the product. In vacuum packaging, fish prepared by the method of cold smoking is stored for no more than 90 days, hot smoked - no more than 60 days. In an ordinary refrigerator, the unpacked fish is stored for 14 and 6 days, respectively.