OK you guys here is the reasons you find such mislabeling in restaurants and grocery stores:
Display. Grocery stores do not know or sometimes care how to handle fish of any stripe. They display it like any other meat, which it is not. This causes huge product losses (waste) which contributes to higher prices for any fish sold.
You will know that a grocer is not displaying fish correctly by the smell. If there is any odor at all, that is an indication the fish is rotting. Fresh fish has no odor other than a faint salty scent.
To display a fish correctly the fish MUST be completely covered in cold ice and the display case must be at the correct temperature for fish - not meat which can remain good at higher temperature.
Most grocers use warm ice as a bed with the fish on top - this does not cool the fish and it begins to rot - thus the strong ‘fish’ smell.
At the end of the day the fish must be stored is a similar manner, not just covered with a cloth, but put into a closed case with more cold ice.
Restaurants have the same mentality, and both are want to recycle rotting fish as something else to cut losses. Alaska publishes a PDF for the correct way to handle and store fish, but neither seems interested in following the rules.
Danson and others have been conducting a vendetta against the commercial fishing industry for decades. Their goal is to eliminate all commercial fishing and particular in the US. One way to do this is by scaring consumers. Last time around it was mercury in tuna.
Make no mistake these people are political in everything they do. And they are just one front in the nearly 45 year old War on all Natural Resource Harvesters. For those so interested - just follow the money back to their funding sources.
At one time, before these socialists began their crusade, commercially caught fish, especially salmon contributed to the US Balance of Trade - holding the number 3 slot. Now, commercially caught fish is somewhere near the bottom, so effective have these leftist been over the decades.
Yes Costco does sell real fish - under their Kirkland (a city near Seattle) and Trident (a large fish buying company) and maybe one or two other brand names. I used to sell my fish to Trident as they were always honest about weights and paid the highest prices - also their checks never bounced.
Caveat about buying at Costco and others - always check the use by date. Even fish flash frozen on board a boat can begin to dehydrate after a long time sitting in a case. High prices often turn a consumer away causing the product to be a slow seller and be keep in the case ‘til near the end of the use by date.
Never ever buy farmed fish of any sort, especially Atlantic or Norwegian salmon - unless you enjoy the fine taste of the food dye use to make the meat red, the tasty antibiotics and growth hormones, or the crunchy bottom paint the fish nibble off the nets they are penned in. For those so concerned about environment - the bottom beneath the fish pens located in slow moving currents becomes a dead zone being mostly a mound of white jelly. Pens in fast moving currents just spread the stuff around so it is not noticeable - like pouring Joy on an oil spill.
The best way to buy fresh fish is directly from the fisherman - if you do not live near the sea, many advertise on the internet in season. It will cost more but the fish will be shipped directly from the fisherman to you in the proper leak-proof packaging with ice. Clams, crab, and oysters can be purchased the same way.
Pollack same as True Cod. One has a barbell on the chin the other does not.
Hake. Used to be regarded as a junk fish. However the huge Pacific North West biomasses encouraged us fisherman to find some way of using the otherwise taste-neutral and fragile meat to make money. Eventually after many trials, Surimi was born. Mostly you see this in stores as “Krab” meat, or the like - notable by the red outer covering and the white color inside.
Salmon. The best is Copper River caught beginning in May. These sockeye and king salmon are brought aboard the boat after no more than one hour in the fisherman’s drift gillnet, the fish’s gill is popped allowing the fish to bleed out, then iced on board and delivered as soon as reasonable either to a floating buyer or the dock. They are then cut (processed) and packaged for delivery to the Lower 48 or to Japan. Delivery is often next-day air freight.
my 2 pennies.
POTD, thanks!
That’s worth more than 2 pennies, FRiend.
Copper River - yep. Worth every penny for a melt-in-mouth experience.
Cheers!
I have actually caught Tyson Foods funding this kind of activism; yes, they are into industrial aquaculture, big time.
I am not as down on aquaculture as you, but there has to be a way of validating responsible behavior and product quality. I am more into private validation services to provide that function than government inspection.
Copper River Reds... Oh man, the best!
Thank you for taking the time to educate us about the fishing business. FReepers are so smart and so helpful.
So is the surimi healthy in your opinion? Do they add a lot of stuff to it?
Thanks for both your large posts, most informative and very useful to know.