How to check the quality of black caviar? How to check red caviar at home: natural or not? How to distinguish natural black caviar from a fake.

Holidays are approaching, and with them festive feasts, dishes and products. Caviar is one such product. As you know, caviar is red, black and overseas-eggplant.

And if there are no questions about overseas caviar, then today the average consumer has a lot of questions about the other two types. Of course, many different fish lay caviar, but we are most interested in sturgeon and salmon caviar.

As a rule, in our stores, you can find three types of black sturgeon caviar. In order of price increase, these are sturgeon, sturgeon and beluga caviar. Depending on the processing method, it is divided into grainy(the eggs are easily separated), which is harvested from selected mature caviar, pressed(in the form of puree) - made from fatty varieties of stellate sturgeon caviar or a mixture of stellate sturgeon and sturgeon, and yastik(salted directly in the film).

Red caviar is laid on the shelves of our stores by various types of salmon fish. These are pink salmon, sockeye salmon, chum salmon, coho salmon, trout. By the amount of protein, fat content and degree of usefulness, all eggs are exactly the same, but the appearance and taste can be very different. Most often found pink salmon caviar- This fish is considered the most prolific among salmon. The taste of eggs is universal, which is why most consumers like it. The product is normal in size (about 5 mm in diameter), with a fragile shell, orange or light orange in color.

Sockeye caviar smaller than pink salmon - about 4 mm in diameter. However, the product is rarely found on sale due to the mass extermination of sockeye salmon.

Keto caviar in diameter can reach 5-6 mm. Large eggs have a regular spherical shape, a bright amber-orange color, a clearly visible fatty speck-embryo and a fairly dense shell. For showiness, it is often used to decorate dishes.

coho caviar small and, unlike all other species, has a burgundy hue. The taste of the product is slightly bitter.

The smallest caviar - only 2-3 mm in diameter - trout. Its color varies from yellow to bright orange.

Surrogate caviar, artificial, usually red, is made from seaweed. It is from them that agar, agaroid and alginate are first produced, and then a special jelly is prepared on their basis, it is tinted in the desired color and eggs are formed. After that, sturgeon or salmon fat is added, which brings the taste of polyunsaturated fatty acids to the artificial caviar. It is even believed that such caviar retains a high concentration of iodine, transferred from algae. So, in principle, it is not only harmless, but also useful.

How to choose real caviar

Please note that since the summer of this year, the use of urotropine preservative in the production of caviar products is prohibited. According to the new Russian GOST, caviar should be treated only with table salt (without any preservatives), and then frozen. It is necessary to store such a product at a temperature not higher than -18C for no more than 12 months and - 25C - no more than 14 months. Now the package should be described in detail how to defrost the caviar before direct use. This is done at a temperature of +4 to 15C during the day.

You should pay attention to the jar itself. Quality caviar is packed in glass jars. Such containers are chemically neutral, unlike a tin can, in which metals are oxidized. In addition, transparent glass allows you to see the color, size and quality of the grain. If the caviar looks like it is covered with frost, it is most likely fake. Good quality red caviar is always crumbly, with eggs of the correct shape, beautiful color and one size.

Fishermen usually harvest caviar in July-August. Therefore, if any other month is indicated on the lid, it means that they salted frozen caviar or packaged the one produced earlier. So the quality of the product will not be the best.

The lid of the jar should not bulge, and in no case should it be swollen. The marking on the lid must be stamped from the inside, if the numbers are pressed inward, this is a fake. Counterfeit products are also issued by low-quality printing and the lack of detailed information about the product and manufacturer on the label.

High-quality caviar should fill the jar tightly, so if something gurgles in the jar, then put it back on the counter.

The first grade of red caviar means that the eggs are perfectly matched in size. The second grade allows you to mix "eggs" of different salmon, which makes the product look less presentable.

Sometimes caviar is also sold by weight. Loose caviar, which is a shapeless mass that sticks to the shoulder blade, will bring you nothing but disappointment. Experts know a simple trick, how to check the caviar. If you doubt the origin of caviar, you cannot determine whether it is real or artificial, throw 2-3 eggs into a glass of hot water. Artificial caviar will dissolve in boiling water.

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

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.

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.

A sandwich with caviar is an integral tradition of family feasts on holidays, preserved since Soviet times. Sometimes you just want to treat yourself to a fish delicacy, especially since caviar is very healthy. Caviar of salmon fish - pink salmon, chum salmon, sockeye salmon, coho salmon, salmon, trout - is a source of lecithin and protein, enriches the diet with vitamins A and D. Sturgeon caviar gives beluga, spike, stellate sturgeon, sturgeon. Black caviar is rich in amino acids, potassium, magnesium, phosphorus and iron, as well as vitamins. But fake caviar can lead to poisoning or be toxic to the body due to excess doses of preservatives and salt. How to distinguish real caviar from a fake?

artificial delicacy

Few people know that the first synthetic caviar is the development of a Soviet scientific institute led by Academician Nesmeyanov. In the 60s, artificial "black" caviar was produced based on the protein of chicken eggs, so that the delicacy was available to ordinary Soviet people. The novelty was immediately overgrown with myths and legends: there were rumors that “black caviar” is made from oil and fish eyes. Further, the technology was improved, and synthetic caviar began to be made from gelatin, dye, salt and fish oil. Nowadays, a surrogate caviar based on seaweed has appeared, which is even considered healthy, as it contains a lot of iodine. Unscrupulous sellers and manufacturers can mislead the buyer by selling synthetic caviar under the guise of real. How to identify fake caviar? A simple scientific experiment will help us.

• If you throw a few eggs of a surrogate product into a glass of hot water, they will dissolve, and the water may turn orange or pink.
• If you make this experiment with real eggs, they will cook, and the eggs will acquire the consistency and color of boiled protein. The color of the water will remain unchanged.
• If you press on an artificial caviar, then it will not burst, but will be smeared on your fingers.
• The eggs of a natural product burst under pressure, and liquid flows out of them.

How to distinguish red caviar from a fake?

• If the caviar is bitter or too salty, and the shell of the eggs is broken, and there is a lot of "juice" in the jar (no more than 10% of the so-called "juice" is allowed), this product cannot be called high-quality. Most likely, the buyer encountered overripe or unripe caviar.
• It is preferable to buy caviar during the harvesting season: for caviar, the period July-August is considered the most favorable. If the buyer on a jar of caviar sees other months as the production date, then the quality of the caviar will suffer. Caviar can be defrosted or salted.
• Fake red caviar in a tin will give itself out with pressed figures of the date of manufacture. Run your finger over the inscription, you should feel the raised numbers - in this case, the caviar is real.
• It is better to buy caviar in glass jars, such containers are neutral for the product, unlike tin packaging. The delicacy by weight has a great advantage - you can taste it, but also a big drawback - it is more often than others a fake of red caviar.
• A careful reading of the information on the jar can help to distinguish red caviar from a fake. The composition according to GOST should be as follows: caviar, salt, vegetable oil, glycerin, preservative E211 (sodium benzoate) and E200 (sorbic acid). The preservative urotropin is prohibited for use in the manufacture of caviar.

How to identify fake black caviar?

Underground manufacturers of fake black caviar use a simple method: pike caviar is tinted with black food coloring and offered on the market under the guise of elite sturgeon or sturgeon caviar. Focusing on the price of a delicacy does not make much sense. Fraudsters will convince you that the product is of high quality and premium quality, therefore it is expensive. The buyer should take a closer look at the eggs: sturgeon caviar has eggs of different sizes, while pike is ideal in appearance, differs in eggs, as they say, one to the other. It would not be superfluous to note that 90% of the retail black caviar market is poached.

“And a seine net came with one mud of the sea ...”

It is this feeling that visits buyers in departments where sturgeon and salmon caviar are sold. The delicacy has a high price, and is bought, most often, on a special occasion. The frustration of buying fake caviar can ruin your holiday.

I so want at this moment to talk with a goldfish to help and advise on how to distinguish a fake caviar. “Soon only a fairy tale will tell,” you thought ... But no, products that are better than goldfish are already on the market, they will tell the whole truth about the quality of caviar. Modern anti-counterfeiting technology - DAT brand control system. The Putin company already guarantees the quality of the product, because the buyer can easily check the salmon caviar of this brand by a unique code. How? Read about it on the website of the DAT brand control system.

If you want a wonderful counterfeit protection to appear on the jars of your favorite brand of caviar, write an offer letter to the manufacturer about this. And good luck with your catch!