How to distinguish real black caviar. The difference between real black caviar and fake

Moscow, 27 December. On the eve of the New Year in the yard - no snow and crisis. But how to leave yourself without the main holiday of the year? New Year's table this year in Russia has risen in price by 30%. This is a minimum set of products. Tangerines, sausage, boiled pork, herring, champagne, of course. And also - caviar, which should still be bought with caution. There are a lot of counterfeits on the market. Just this week, a car with a ton of dubious product was detained in Russia. Correspondent of "MIR 24" Roman Nikiforov still decided to choose a good caviar for the New Year.

The contents of the detained bags in the capital's market could be sold for 20 million. But in the Khabarovsk Territory, the court's decision is enforced - they destroyed half a ton of smuggled black caviar. Moreover, they transported her in a bus of a funeral service company. The operatives saw such products in the coffin, in the literal sense.

Another seizure is on Sakhalin. The caviar is not black, but red. As many as 7 tons. A minibus would not be enough here, two trucks were needed. The delicacy, as you can see, is already pretty spoiled.

A typical poaching scheme: in the summer - barbaric production, and closer to the New Year - the transfer of goods to the center of Russia. However, according to the World Wildlife Fund, the situation in the country is gradually changing. In 2005, animal rights activists recommended not buying black caviar at all: sturgeon hunting was banned, and 99% of the illegal product was on the market. Now it's just over half. The quality of the so-called "wild" caviar does not hold water. Unsanitary conditions along the entire production chain, from fish production to transportation.

“In no case should you buy caviar in the markets, in no case in convenience stores. This is a big chance that you will pay the poacher for the destruction of the last sturgeon. Therefore, buy either directly from the manufacturer, or in large retail chains. Here is my recommendation,” Alexander Moiseev, Project Coordinator of the World Wildlife Fund's Sustainable Fisheries Program in Russia.

Legal black caviar is made only in aquaculture farms. The largest of the Russian ones is in the Vologda Oblast. There, fish are grown in open water in cages. Everything is like in humans: a pregnant female is given an ultrasound scan, when she is ready, she takes birth. An analogue of a caesarean section: a small incision heals quickly, the fish remains alive. True, upon reaching the age of 15, pushing through her belly is already a problem. And then the sturgeons have to be slaughtered.

“In vivo caviar is large. And here such whitish spots are visible. These are the embryos themselves. Since caviar, which is mined by slaughter, does not have time to ripen to such a size. It is slightly smaller than caviar obtained in vivo. Therefore, this is the best that is, and, of course, more expensive, ”says Sergey Novikov, general director of the caviar production enterprise.

Sergei Novikov calls poaching products biological weapons. His advice is not to buy caviar by weight. Take only a quality jar with quality packaging. Cheap for such a product is not made. For foreign manufacturers, read the composition: is there any E285 additive banned in Russia, known as borax, it disrupts metabolism.

In addition, with great care it is worth buying the largest and most valuable caviar - beluga. The maturation period of this huge fish is about 15 years. And in the vast majority of Russian farms, beluga is still too young. So change is possible.

Finally, the price. Cheap legal black caviar cannot be by definition. To open production, you need to invest in the business from 100 million rubles, and the investments themselves are long-term and risky. Although sturgeons mature twice as fast in indoor pools as in nature, the first caviar will have to wait five years.

“Fish, firstly, may not grow. Maybe the genetic inheritance itself is bad. May die of disease on its own in the process. Any technical failures, interruptions in the supply of oxygen, for example, within an hour can kill all the fish,” says the director of the sturgeon farm, Marat Abzalov.

Red salmon caviar is similar in composition and useful properties to black caviar. It is absorbed a little worse, but it costs much less.

The main thing is to choose the right product, so we go shopping in one of the capital's hypermarkets. So, 4 cans of caviar were bought from different manufacturers at prices ranging from a little over 2 to 3.5 thousand rubles per kilogram, which were referred for examination to the Institute of Fisheries and Oceanography.

“First, when choosing a jar, we, of course, look at the date. This was done in the summer, just the season of poutine. When the fish spawn and when the fish is harvested. This is from July to September,” explains the head of the testing laboratory, Svetlana Mikhlai.

If the date is different, then before being rolled up in jars, caviar was kept in a warehouse or transported through all of Russia. Such a product is less valuable, and there is more of it on the market. The reason is economics.

“And the labor force, and electricity, and tin, of course, are much more expensive in the Far East than here. Therefore, it is easier to bring the frozen yastyk, defrost it here, and then produce products from it with some relatively cheap labor,” explains Vasily Sokolov, deputy head of the Federal Agency for Fisheries.

It’s good if the label indicates a single GOST for all, and not defined by the manufacturer itself (technical conditions - ed. note). The choice is simplified and a transparent jar.

There should be no excess liquid inside. The eggs should hold their shape, be about the same size, and be a natural light orange color. Buying a pig in a poke is risky. So in the MIR 24 set, the most expensive caviar with GOST, packaged on time, right in Kamchatka, unexpectedly turned out to be the worst. Not everything depends on the manufacturer.

“She has the smell of oxidized fat, such a smell is not characteristic of her, herring giblets. Perhaps the temperature conditions during transportation were not respected. Caviar could either freeze slightly, then melt, or the regimes were not observed in the trading network. It’s better not to eat such caviar,” says Svetlana Mikhlai, head of the testing laboratory.

Caviar is more than 30 grams of valuable protein. As well as healthy fats, trace elements and vitamins.

“They are very easy to digest. They are immediately synthesized into our neurotransmitters. These are serotonin, endorphins. Caviar is a kind of drug, a drug of positive mood,” says nutritionist Mariyat Mukhina.

It's just not to be abused. Ideally, no more than 3 teaspoons per day. Too much salt.

“One gram of salt holds a glass of water in our body. If you ate 6 spoons, then you have 2 liters left. That is, in the morning you will just have a swollen face. You will have lean legs, ”explains the nutritionist.

The black caviar presented for sale is divided into several varieties - the first, second, highest and the so-called age. Age types are premium, they are more expensive than the rest. There is also an amber delicacy Golden Caviar - very rare and incredibly expensive, obtained from albino beluga. Artificial eggs contain chicken protein, gelatin, salt, preservatives, flavors, have a spherical shape, large sizes. Naturally, a cheap protein fake has no useful properties (no one forbids you to buy it - if only not at the price of the original).

Very often, black caviar is faked by mixing natural and artificial grains - this way the deception becomes less obvious to an inexperienced buyer.

How to choose

It is not easy to check the quality of black caviar by eye and in general it is not always possible, therefore:

• take packaged;
• give preference to products of well-known manufacturers.

According to GOST, tin and glass containers can be used for packaging, plastic does not yet indicate a fake, but is almost always associated with an appropriate level of quality. Factory jars must contain the mark "sturgeon caviar", data on the type of fish, GOST or TU (with a number). Information about pasteurization, type of product (pause, grain), composition is also indicated.

The expiration date should not exceed one year, but a grained, non-pasteurized product is stored for up to two months, and a packed product is stored for no more than a month. The marking includes not only the release date, but also the shift number. Beluga, sturgeon delicacy is classified by color, which is also indicated. The marking on the tin must be strictly convex.

Well, after the purchase, you can throw the eggs into a glass of very hot water;

• if the liquid is colored - you bought a colored product of pollock or pike;
• when an oil film forms on the surface of the water, we can talk about a protein fake;
• gelatin balls completely dissolve.

green delicacy

The greenish color is characteristic of black sturgeon caviar. The particles have a diameter of around 2 mm and a green tint that is not typical for black caviar. Other options are yellow, brown. By the way, the sturgeon delicacy accounts for more than 60%.

Experts will share how to buy high-quality caviar

A resident of Novosibirsk bought a delicacy at the fair, but doubted its quality. How to check red caviar and distinguish it from a fake, experts told us, and we conducted an experiment

Photo: Victoria MINAEVA

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To check red caviar and distinguish it from a fake, a laboratory and experts are not needed. From their own experience, the correspondents of Komsomolskaya Pravda - Novosibirsk ", to whom the reader turned, were convinced of this. On the eve of the New Year, the pensioner saw an advertisement on TV: “Hurry! A fair with goods from Sakhalin itself will be held at the railway station!” A huge painted dish with caviar, which was stirred with a large spoon, beckoned ... The viewer instantly turned into a customer, rushing to the station.

I bought two cans for 500 rubles. One - for myself, the second - as a gift to relatives, - the pensioner told KP - Novosibirsk. - And then I bought two more cans for a friend.

CAVIAR OF MYSTERIOUS FISH

"Sakhalin amber caviar" - read the label on the banks. Already at home, our heroine took a more critical look at the purchase. The can opener was located at the bottom, and it was not indicated in the composition whose caviar it was - salmon, chum salmon, pink salmon? The composition says: "salmon caviar." Apparently, all at once.

The woman decided to try the delicacy before the holidays at a bargain price and was completely upset

It's rubber! It tastes like rubber balls rolling in your mouth. I couldn't even bite through one egg right away. And there was absolutely no taste, - the customer is indignant. I immediately doubted if she was real. Moreover, the son of a friend ate a sandwich with this caviar, and his stomach ached.

HOW TO CHECK CAVIAR?

A woman brought a suspicious jar to the editorial office of KP - Novosibirsk. For comparison, we also had proven caviar from a reliable store. We turned to an expert for advice on how to recognize where is a fake and where is a natural product.

According to the law, artificial caviar cannot be sold under the guise of natural caviar, that is, obtained from fish. The seller must honestly indicate that this is, for example, an imitation - from algae, gelatin or other ingredients, - explained Yakov Novoselov, a nutritionist, director of the Siberian Federal Center for Health Nutrition. - If this is fish caviar, then it must be written which one.

And it is very easy to check the naturalness. You just need to pour boiling water over the eggs. If the eggs dissolved, then you had gelatin in front of you.

If the caviar has not changed its color and the color of the water, then this is not just a harmless fake made from gelatin and herring brine, but chemistry, the expert says. - You can even earn poisoning from such caviar. It can be produced, for example, using esters or other substances. Moreover, unscrupulous manufacturers often add urotropin to such caviar - a preservative that is prohibited in our country.

Real caviar should behave like a squirrel. Under the influence of boiling water, the shell around the eggs will turn white, and the water itself will turn white, cloudy.

THE MEDICINE SMELL EXPERIMENT

Armed with expert advice and boiling water, we conducted an experiment.

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Fake caviar or not: how we tested red caviar. A reader of "Komsomolskaya Pravda" bought "Sakhalin" caviar at the fair and was dissatisfied with it Victoria MINAEVA

We first poured hot water over “Sakhalin” caviar from the fair. The scent of some kind of medicine wafted through the office. The female journalists pinched their noses. And the men suggested: maybe it smells like urotropin - a substance formed during the interaction of ammonia and formaldehyde? In medicine, it is used as an antibacterial drug against microorganisms that cause diseases of the urinary tract.

The eggs themselves from the “Sakhalin” jar did not change color in any way, the water remained transparent, but barely noticeable oily spots appeared on its surface. We conclude: caviar is fake.

But real caviar, under the influence of boiling water, really boiled: the shell of the eggs turned white, like the water itself. We conclude: caviar is natural. It’s a pity that there are less and less of this in stores and at fairs every year ...

INSTEAD OF AFTERWORD

"Komsomolskaya Pravda" for two days tried to get through to the company producing "Sakhalin" caviar. On the jar it is written: LLC "Musson", Sakhalin region, Poronaysk. The phone number on the label was not answered. Perhaps someone tried to fake the products of this company, but she herself had nothing to do with it. If this is the case, then employees can contact the journalists of KP - Novosibirsk by calling 8-923-145-11-02.

VPOROS - RIBROM

Can sellers be punished?

According to our expert, it is almost impossible to punish sellers from the fair, which was organized for only three days.

You can file a complaint with Rospotrebnadzor. But the likelihood that employees will be able to conduct a check is very small, - Yakov Novoselov believes. - Now very liberal laws - certification of foodstuffs is canceled. By law, you just need to write a declaration - a statement that the product meets all standards, and that's it. And the supervisory authorities do not have the right to inspect the company for three years. The same goes for fairs. Sellers declare: "We have natural caviar, from Sakhalin." And everyone must believe them. Supervisory authorities may conduct an unscheduled inspection only in the event of a well-founded complaint. For example, if a person applies with a certificate from the hospital that he was poisoned. It is more effective to simply notify, for example, our center, indicating where low-quality goods are sold. And we ourselves will properly organize the test purchase and after that we will file a lawsuit in court, we will turn to the prosecutor's office.

It remains to be hoped that the Rospotrebnadzor of the Novosibirsk region and the regional prosecutor's office will still have the opportunity to check the seller of this incomprehensible "rubber" product. Designated Offices may consider this publication as an official public statement.

Black caviar is an expensive and very useful product. It is rich in vitamins, micro and macro elements. However, this can only be said about real caviar. The fakes that have now flooded the store shelves do not have any useful properties; rather, on the contrary, they can harm the human body. How to distinguish real caviar?

Differences between real black caviar and fake

There are several ways to recognize a fake, consider the most effective of them:

• On real caviar there can be no plaque, on a fake it most often is.
• Real black caviar does not smell like fish or has a very weak smell. In most cases, fake caviar undergoes aromatization, so this pseudo-caviar has a sharp fishy aroma.
• In addition, real caviar bursts easily in the mouth. The counterfeit has a jelly-like structure; due to the absence of any shell, it cannot burst.
• When tilting the jar, its contents should not float along the bottom and walls. A quality product does not have a lot of liquid.
• Also, there should not be dry lumps and sticking of caviar in the jar. If the contents lie in a tight lump, this indicates either a fake or poor-quality processing. Real high-quality black caviar should be crumbly.
• If you throw a few real eggs in boiling water, they will not dissolve, a fake one, on the contrary, can completely dissolve.
• Fake black caviar thrown into cold water will in most cases turn the liquid gray, as it contains artificial dyes. This product does not color water.

In addition, the consumer should be alerted by the too low price of caviar. A natural quality product cannot be cheap. Most often, a low price indicates a fake or illegal product, the expiration date of which is very doubtful, as well as its origin.

When buying, it is worth considering the type of fish, the caviar of which is sold on the counter. Beluga fishing is prohibited, so its caviar is either counterfeit or illegal products that do not have any documents and cannot be presented on the shelves.

Real factory products are not packaged in plastic. The packaging must be metal or glass, and the lid must be tin. The packaging indicates the manufacturing plant, which should be located close to the region of production. A plant located at a great distance should raise doubts about the quality of its products.

Where can you buy caviar

You should buy black caviar only in a traditional store or an online store. For example, here http://lakomkam.com/catalog/chernaya_ikra/, where all the information and documents are provided.

In the bazaar, the product may be a little cheaper, while all the necessary documents, most likely, the seller will not be able to provide. It is not recommended to buy such goods in transitions, small kiosks and other street points.

In case of any doubt, the buyer has the right to demand a certificate for the products from the seller.

What does "fake caviar" mean? How is it faked? Can a non-professional spot a fake? What to look for when choosing caviar? We answer these and other questions together with Vladislav Kim, the sous-chef of the Sumosan Japanese restaurant, and Dmitry Ermakov, the chef of the La Marée fish shop.

VLADISLAV KIM

Sous Chef at Sumosan Restaurant

Each caviar has its own characteristics. For example, a non-professional can confuse tobiko (flying fish) caviar with masago (capelin) caviar, since they look similar in appearance. But tobiko is much more expensive than masago, so manufacturers often mix tobiko with masago to reduce the cost of the product, and at the same time call it tobiko. I don't know how fake it is. You can distinguish mixed caviar if you look closely: eggs should be the same size, and tobiko is larger than masago. In addition, tobiko itself is dense caviar, the grains go one to one. With taste it is more difficult: here, perhaps, only professionals or gourmets can determine.

Red caviar may just be of poor quality. For example, unripe or overripe. She is not faked. In both cases, the shell of the eggs becomes hard, the film bursts, but it seems to remain, and the caviar can be bitter and salty. A good caviar should burst slightly and melt in your mouth.

It is also better to choose red caviar by appearance and smell - these parameters can, of course, be determined only in the case of loose caviar. But loose caviar has its drawback: it is risky to take it, because you cannot know exactly who the caviar producer is, and subsequently you will not be able to refer to him.

As for caviar in jars, you can only rely on a trusted manufacturer. But here it must be said that canned caviar itself is considered lower grade: after all, this is caviar that is canned, and a good product is usually not canned.

We can talk about a real fake in the case of black caviar. This is a very common case: pike caviar is dyed with food coloring, since it tastes very similar to sturgeon or beluga caviar (it is the most expensive, twice as expensive as sturgeon). You can identify fake black caviar: in pike caviar, all the eggs are the same size, go one to the other. Real black caviar, on the contrary, is not outwardly ideal: all eggs are of different sizes.

DMITRY ERMAKOV

fish shop chef La Marée

Fake red caviar is not actually fake in the literal sense: it is very poor quality caviar that is salted in dubious ways, sometimes in unsanitary conditions, and sold frozen in bulk for cheap. In addition, caviar can be last year's - it is simply washed and salted again. As a result, it will be crumbly, and ideally, the eggs should be glued to each other, but at the same time, the eggs should not be slimy.

But the main problem of caviar is not even that it is frozen or last year, but that it may initially be immature. As a result, it bursts, since the walls of the eggs are not dense. Such caviar usually costs no more than 270 rubles per 140 grams in a can. Although there are exceptions: more expensive caviar may be of poor quality. She, by the way, can easily be poisoned.

It is better to buy caviar in season - as a rule, this is the end of September and the beginning of October. It is easier to choose caviar by weight than in a jar: you can simply focus on the appearance. But in this case, too, there are disadvantages. I would advise you to be very careful when buying loose caviar - usually in this case the manufacturer is unknown, and in which case you will not be able to complain about anyone.

They can fake black caviar: they paint with pike with black dye. It is difficult for a non-professional to distinguish a fake, since pike caviar is very close in taste to black.

Illustration: Olya Volk