Lake Superior Fish
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Lake Superior Whitefish Buyers Guide & Recipes

 

Buying, Cooking, & Eating Fresh Fish Safely

To ensure that the fish you buy and eat is as safe as possible, follow these recommended guidelines:

• Think twice before you eat raw fish. You can never be absolutely sure the fish doesn't harbor parasites or high levels of bacteria.
• Cook fish thoroughly until it is opaque and flakes easily with a fork. Overcooking makes it dry. The best way to learn the technique is to practice.
• When buying whole fish, look for bright, clear, bulging eyes. Cloudy, sunken, discolored or slime-covered eyes often signal fish that is beginning to spoil. The skin of freshly caught fish is covered with a translucent mucus that looks a bit like varnish. The color is vivid and bright. Avoid fish whose skin has begun to discolor, shows depressions, tears or blemishes, or is covered with sticky, yellowish brown mucus.
• When buying steaks or fillets, look for moist flesh that still has a translucent sheen. Watch out for flesh that is dried out or gaping—the muscle fibers are beginning to pull apart. That's a sign of over-the-hill fish.
• Note how the fish is displayed and look for clues that the temperature may be too high. Fish that are piled high, displayed in open cases or sitting under hot lights are perfect places for bacteria to grow. If fish fillets are displayed inside separate pans surrounded by ice, that's usually a sign the retailer is paying some attention to quality. Whole fish should be displayed under ice.
• Keep an eye out for displays featuring cooked and raw fish or seafood next to each other. There's a potential health hazard from cross-contamination—the transfer of bacteria from raw to cooked products. Buying anything from this kind of display can be risky.
• Use your nose. Fresh fish smell like the sea but have no strong odor. Freshwater fish in good condition sometimes smell like cucumbers. Strong odors usually indicate spoilage.
• Once you buy fish, refrigerate it quickly. At home, store it in the coldest part of your refrigerator, keep it in the original wrapper and use it fast—within a day.
• If you're concerned about quality, look for evidence that fish has been frozen and then thawed. Look for chunks of ice floating in the fish liquid—a clue that the fish had been frozen. There's nothing wrong with frozen fish that's been thawed, but if you unknowingly refreeze it, its texture and flavor will suffer. It's probably better to buy frozen fish instead.

Controlling bacteria improves fish safety and taste

If you are fishing for either sport, subsistence, or commercial purposes, it is important to understand that bacteria impacts the quality and safety of fish. Fortunately, steps can be taken to control the growth of bacteria. Bacteria is naturally found in the slime, digestive tracts, gills, and exposed blood. It grows quickly, multiplying exponentially, after the fish is removed from the water. Bacterial growth is further increased if coolers, fish boxes, or other storage items are not properly cleaned. Once established, bacteria soon changes the texture, color, odor, and, most importantly, flavor of fish.

Don't bruise your fish

Few people realize that fish flesh is easily damaged. If fish are bruised, enzymes are released. These enzymes soften the flesh and make nutrients available to bacteria. Food scientists have found that flesh taken from bruised fish contain 10 times more bacteria than flesh from unbruised fish. By separating fish bruised in nets, fishermen can avoid having a few highly contaminated fish, accelerating spoilage of those fish that have not been bruised.

Properly ice your fish as soon as possible

It is important to properly ice fish. This is done by making a 1 to 2 inch bed of crushed ice, layering ice with fish, and topping the fish box or cooler off with 2 to 3 inches of additional ice. Icing fish provides the benefits of:

• Rapidly cooling the fish;
• Slowing bacteria growth and enzyme activity;
• Flushing away bacteria as the ice melts;
• Prevents drying;
• Improving texture by delaying rigor mortis in hot weather; and
• Improving texture by resisting freezing in cold weather.

Food scientists have conducted studies on bacterial growth that support there commendation that fish be iced regardless of weather conditions. Their studies have also determined that the flushing action of melting ice extended the shelf life of fish in coolers by controlling bacterial growth.