How to check black caviar at home. Black caviar

Many buyers are wondering: how to check red caviar at home - natural or not? Red caviar is one of the available, but expensive delicacies. It is one of the best decorations for the festive table. Red caviar is not only good on sandwiches, but also rich in nutrients. This is not surprising, because caviar is a cluster of fish eggs in which fry embryos should develop.

In most living organisms, the organs where the offspring develops, which will have rapid growth, are saturated with fats, proteins and vitamins. Therefore, both plant seeds and bird eggs, as well as the fish caviar we mentioned, are very nutritious and carry vitamins. In the food industry, unfertilized eggs are usually used. And red caviar is a collective name for caviar of different types of salmon fish. They are similar in color and composition.

The benefits of red caviar

Red caviar contains vitamins of groups A, B, D and E, as well as folic acid, which is indispensable for pregnant women - in its absence, the development of the neural tube of the fetus is disturbed. Of the trace elements, it contains, like in many seafood, iodine, in addition - calcium, phosphorus and iron. Caviar is also rich in polyunsaturated fatty acids. Together with fish meat, fish fat and vegetable oils, it is considered a valuable source of Omega-3 and Omega-6. They support cardiovascular health, prevent cancer, asthma, depression and obesity, despite their high calorie content. Calcium is good for bones, and iron increases hemoglobin.

Such a valuable product will certainly want to fake! You may encounter low-quality goods or artificial caviar. But few people will agree to go to the laboratory with a jar of caviar to evaluate the quality of the goods. It would be convenient to test red caviar at home. How to do it? Let's look at some points. In the article, you will learn more about how to check whether red caviar is real or not, at home and in the store. First, let's try to evaluate the quality of caviar.

We study the jar

At home, check red caviar, as you might guess, you can taste it. But it is much better to find out in advance, even before the purchase. The jar that sells caviar can tell you a lot. First, shake her. Natural caviar is usually packed tightly and you will not hear any gurgling. If it is, feel free to leave the product on the store shelf. Second, consider the labeling. It must be pressed in from the inside. If they are pressed in from the outside, which is much easier to do, you are dealing with a fake. The release date is also informative. The collection of caviar usually takes place in the summer, and it quickly goes to processing. Other dates should alert you.

Look at the composition. Avoid caviar, which contains E239 - hexamine. toxic. Sodium benzoate (E211) is also not helpful. Both of these substances, under certain conditions, are converted into carcinogens. There will most likely be preservatives in caviar, but sorbic acid (E200), which is the most harmless, should be preferred.

We buy by weight

By weight, it is much easier to distinguish a fake from the original - after all, all the goods are in your mind. You can even taste it! But here, too, it is important to be careful. To begin with, take a look at the caviar and evaluate its appearance. If the kernels are too large and have a dull color, polyphosphates may have been added to it. They are put to increase weight, as they retain moisture. This caused a strange swelling of the eggs in size. Not only is it simply unprofitable to buy water instead of caviar, but polyphosphates are also very harmful. The ability to retain water is also reflected in the human body - edema and cardiovascular diseases occur.

How to check red caviar at home? You can carry out the same examination at home, and also taste it. There is one minus in this - the product has already been bought and the money has been spent. High-quality red caviar smells good. Take the caviar in your hand. It should not have a raid, and when compressed, the egg bursts. Taste it - you should feel the familiar taste of red caviar, any difference from which is a reason to refuse to buy.

Dangers of loose caviar

It is convenient to buy by weight - all the caviar is in front of you. But it must be taken into account that it is not stored in packaged form for more than 4 months. As already known, salmon spawning takes place in the summer, so after November you should not buy caviar by weight. Most likely, it has already been frozen and has lost its unique flavor and texture.

The danger of loose caviar is that the seller can remove dried or cloudy eggs (a sign of loss of container tightness) and add glycerin and fragrances. And the best option is to choose caviar in a glass container. It is both hermetic and protected from manipulation by unscrupulous sellers, and at the same time it is visible to the light.

What is artificial caviar?

When artificial red and black caviar was invented, it was made from eggs. However, the product was very different in taste and texture from natural and was not in great demand. Years passed, technology developed. Modern artificial caviar is based on gelling agents - agar and sodium alginate. The first is obtained from red algae, the second - from brown.

Artificial caviar is made from eggs, milk and protein. Salmon fish meat, fish oil can be used in the production. This gives the caviar a fishy taste. But the taste is still inferior to the real one. It is devoid of most of the nutrients found in real caviar. Health hazards can be dyes and flavors that are intended to at least slightly bring its taste closer to natural.

In principle, a caviar surrogate is a good choice for those who save. It can be used to decorate dishes for a large number of guests. But if you go to the store to buy a natural delicacy, you will beware of fakes. Some buyers try to test red caviar at home. As it often happens, not everyone is able to distinguish between natural caviar and a surrogate, so it is important to read the tips for choosing this product.

There is one more fact not in favor of artificial caviar. The agar-agar-based product keeps open for only a few hours. This gelling agent from red algae is not accidentally used in a petri dish to grow laboratory bacteria. This is a great breeding ground for them. Therefore, leaving such caviar in the refrigerator, you run the risk of getting along with it a lot of unknown microorganisms.

Along with this, the question arose: how to check red caviar at home - natural or artificial?

What does the packaging hide?

Try to check red caviar both at home and right on the spot. Manufacturers of artificial caviar do not always have the goal of hiding this fact, so be sure to read what is written on the packaging. It may indicate that the product is an imitation of fish. But even if this fact is hidden, the composition can betray the truth indirectly. If caviar contains vegetable oil and dye, this is no accident! The oil is used to keep the gelatinous eggs from sticking together, and the dye gives them a red tint. An unnaturally bright color may be a sign of dye use.

You should be alerted by the too low price of the product. Storage conditions can also give out all the secrets. Natural caviar is stored at negative temperatures, so if you see a storage temperature above zero, for example, from + 4 to + 8, you have a fake. Artificial caviar sticks together when frozen, and when defrosted it turns into porridge. To prevent this from happening, the packaging does not indicate temperatures below zero.

Look at the manufacturer's address. In the Far East, it hardly makes sense to produce artificial caviar, but if the production site is located in the continental part, then the likelihood of a fake is high. Checking red caviar, real or not, at home, as it turned out, is quite real!

Appearance and properties

How to check red caviar, real or not, by sight? Carefully inspect the eggs. The most important criterion is that fake eggs will not have a nucleus, because they are devoid of a germ! Artificial eggs can vary in size and shade, while natural eggs are usually the same size and color.

What other ways are there to check red caviar at home - is it natural? How can this be done? Throw a couple of eggs into hot water. If the caviar is real, nothing will happen. And the artificial one will quickly give itself away. The gelatin shell will dissolve in water. The caviar surrogate quickly turns the water orange.

Structure, taste and smell

It is worth putting an egg on the tongue and trying to crush it. It bursts - it means it's real. Artificial caviar can only be cracked with teeth. While the real egg is a capsule with liquid contents in which the fry must develop, the technologies for the production of the surrogate have not reached such an accurate imitation. Its eggs are uniform in structure. Good caviar should not be overly salty. Pay attention to how caviar smells. A pronounced herring smell indicates that the caviar is made from meat and fish fat, that is, artificial, or flavorings are added to it, which is also not in its favor.

Summing up

So, how to check red caviar at home? Natural red caviar is distinguished by many visual and taste properties. And information about it can be obtained by carefully examining the packaging. So, if you are observant enough, you can check at home whether real red caviar is or not. Buy quality products and enjoy the taste!

Unfortunately, in our time, in pursuit of dishonest profits, scammers, under the guise of an expensive product, are increasingly selling an artificial imitation. Such a fate did not bypass the exquisite delicacy - black caviar. Given the high price of this product, unscrupulous suppliers continue to successfully deceive many buyers by constantly improving their technologies to create a counterfeit product. Every year, scammers are getting more and more devious and inventive in their deception. Is it possible for an ordinary buyer in 2020 to distinguish a real product from a fake, or is it impossible to do without expert analysis? We answer with confidence - it is possible. To do this, you only need to know some of the features of real black caviar that cannot be imitated.

Types of counterfeit black caviar

First of all, it is important to know what exactly they can try to sell you under the guise of black caviar. In 2020, the following tricks were recorded:

• Tinted caviar of non-sturgeon fish. In the course are grains of caviar of pike, cod, capelin or even halibut. It can be sold both separately and mixed with real black caviar.
• Artificial imitation of seaweed caviar.
• Artificial imitation of caviar from tinted gelatin with the addition of chemicals.

Separately, I would like to talk about the purchase of black caviar obtained by poachers. Although it is inherently not a fake, it poses a huge danger to human health. Since the habitual habitat and food of sturgeons is the bottom, it is important to understand that in reservoirs all toxic and harmful substances settle there. Real black caviar, which goes on sale, is produced on aquaculture farms in environmentally friendly conditions for human health.

How to recognize artificial caviar?

When buying, be sure to pay attention to the appearance of black caviar. There is never any foreign coating on real grains. If it is present, be sure that you have a fake product in front of you. Also, if caviar of another fish is mixed with black caviar, upon closer inspection you will be able to notice this due to the difference in the size of the grains. Another way to understand whether the real black caviar is in front of you or not is to tilt the open jar to the side and see how the caviar behaves. There is little liquid in this product, caviar should not float along the bottom or walls. In addition, real caviar should not contain any lumps and sticky grains. Real grains have a crumbly structure and are always separated from each other.

After a visual inspection, it is necessary to pay attention to the smell of caviar. Grains of real black caviar have a slightly pronounced fish flavor, or do not have it at all. At the same time, artificial imitation due to synthetic flavors almost always has a sharp fishy smell, which gives itself away.

Put a grain of caviar in your mouth. If you purchased real caviar, the grain will easily burst in your mouth. If an artificial imitation gets into your mouth, it will not burst due to the absence of any shell, but will stretch like a piece of marmalade in your mouth. As a rule, such caviar is made from gelatin or seaweed.

If black caviar grains get into boiling water, they will not dissolve in water, while products made from gelatin or any synthetic compounds are guaranteed to dissolve in boiling water.

Black caviar thrown into cold water will not change its color in any way. But the dyes contained in the artificial product will quickly give themselves away, coloring the cold water in a dark color.

How to protect yourself from buying counterfeit black caviar?

First of all, it is necessary to know the features of the factory packaging of real caviar after its extraction. Remember, real products are sorted only either in cans or in glass jars with a tin lid. All other packaging methods, no matter how beautiful the name they are covered with (for example, barrel black caviar), is counterfeit. Only certain factories have permission to supply black caviar, which will never supply caviar to markets in any plastic containers or barrels. All products from private traders are either poached caviar, dangerous to health, or an artificial fake. Remember, you should buy caviar strictly in factory-made iron or glass jars with an iron lid.

For visual inspection of caviar, glass jars are the best fit. At the same time, if you shake an iron can with caviar, you can conclude from the sensations of the presence of liquid that this is not a real product. Also be sure to pay attention to the composition of the product indicated on the bank. Real caviar contains nothing but caviar, edible salt and the LIV-1 or Varex preservative. The mention of anything else in the composition, even ordinary vegetable oil, will already indicate to you that the product is fake. In addition, be sure to pay attention to the name of the fish whose caviar you are going to buy. Beluga catching is prohibited by law, so if beluga caviar is indicated, be sure that you have counterfeit.

The price of black caviar in most cases also indicates its origin. A low price should signal to you the danger of purchasing a counterfeit or dangerous product of unknown expiration date and place of origin.

Be sure to look at the manufacturer indicated on the packaging, it should be located in close proximity to the production region.

Finally

In an attempt to save money, you can easily buy something completely different from what is actually black caviar, and in the worst case, even harm your health with such a product. It is very important not to fall for the tricks of dishonest scammers and not be an unwitting sponsor of poaching activities by buying black caviar of unknown origin. Be sure to pay attention to the points described above when buying black caviar. And let it bring joy and pleasure to you and your loved ones.

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.

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