Christmas is approaching, a period in which the smoked salmon becomes the protagonist on the tables, but it is important to remember that this product presents various critical issues, not only linked to fish farming, which we have talked about several times, but also to the intrinsic qualities that distinguish it.
A quality salmon is not only measured by the taste and omega-3 content, but also by the freshness which should be guaranteed until the expiry date and by the correct quantity of product inside the package. He concentrated on all these aspects a test, conducted by Swiss magazines Balance And Bon a Savoir, on 15 packs of smoked salmon, coming from various points of sale.
Although many of the brands tested are mainly sold abroad, the results obtained also offer useful insights for Italian consumers, given that the salmon often comes from the same Scottish, Norwegian, etc. farms.
To evaluate the quality of the products, several factors were taken into consideration, including:
The results
The test results show that some smoked salmon do not meet freshness and nutritional quality standards desired. Only two packages (purchased from Globus and Denner) received a “very good” rating, and both contained wild Alaskan salmon.
These products stood out for their freshness, balanced content of omega-3 and omega-6, and the Globus reference also for the fact that they respected the weight indicated on the package. Denner’s package, despite having obtained a good overall score, was instead penalized for a slight discrepancy in weight.
In this case, we are not so much interested in the brands, typical of the Swiss market, but rather in the general indication that emerged from the test: if we really have to buy smoked salmon, it is advisable to opt for the wild one, for several reasonsincluding product quality.
The test in fact confirmed a clear superiority of wild salmon, in particular that from Alaska, which proved to be fresh until the expiry date and with a much more favorable Omega 3 nutritional content.
Four packages, coming from Aldi, Coop and Migros, which contained farmed salmon, however had an unfavorable ratio of omega-6 to omega-3, a factor that denotes a lower quality of the product. This is due to the artificial feeding of farmed salmon, based on vegetable proteins and vegetable oils, which negatively affects the nutritional content, increasing the concentration of omega-6, which can negatively affect long-term health.
Another critical aspect of the test concerns hygiene. While there were some improvements compared to previous tests, not all salmon packs performed well in this regard. 11 of the 15 products analyzed had acceptable bacterial loads, but in some cases the levels were worrying.
In particular, Aldi’s Almare Seafood product showed alarming levels of bacteria, with over 3 million mesophilic aerobic germs per gram and 6,800 units of staphylococci, which can cause food poisoning. Furthermore, salmon from Coop Switzerland and Migros showed bacterial counts above German guide limits, but the companies ensured they respected industry regulations. In Switzerland, in fact, the reference values for bacterial load are not binding, since the Federal Council abolished the limits in 2008.
