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Caviar is delicious and nutritious, making it a great health supplement. But most of the products on the market are "caviar substitutes".
The difficulty in raising sturgeon, high requirements for sauce making techniques, and endangered wild sturgeon are the reasons for the high price of caviar.
China has overcome the global challenge of domesticating wild sturgeon, making it the largest producer of caviar.
Caviar, also known as fish roe sauce. According to the definition of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, only fish roe products derived from sturgeons can be called caviar, while other similar foods are classified as "caviar substitutes". However, not every sturgeon egg can be made into caviar.
At present, there are over 20 species of sturgeon worldwide, but only the eggs of three sturgeons, Beluga, Osetra, and Sevruga, which are found in the Caspian Sea south of Russia and north of Iran, can be used to make the precious fish roe sauce we are familiar with.
In the West, the use of sturgeon caviar is seen as a symbol of nobility, and caviar is known as the "black gold" in the international market, ranking alongside foie gras and truffles as one of the top three delicacies in the world. However, now not only can this delicacy be produced domestically, but it has also become the largest source of caviar!
The ancients had already fallen in love with sturgeon caviar
Human consumption of sturgeon caviar has a history of over two thousand years. The first people to eat caviar were the ancient Persians on the Eurasian continent. These Persians discovered that these sturgeons had a very strong reproductive ability and believed that sturgeon roe could strengthen the body and be very helpful for reproduction. Therefore, this dietary habit quickly spread.
By the time of Aristotle in ancient Greece, sturgeon roe had become synonymous with deliciousness. With the spread of ancient Greek culture, the habit of eating sturgeon seeds began to spread to Europe. Soon, this delicious sturgeon seed conquered Europeans, and eating sturgeon caviar became popular in Europe.
The finished caviar is round and plump in granular form, with a delicious and salty taste when it ruptures in the mouth, giving consumers a unique taste and sensory effect. Caviar contains rich and valuable nutrients, such as protein (arginine protein, histidine protein, isoleucine protein, lysine protein, methionine protein), fat (cholesterol, phosphorus), vitamins (vitamin A, vitamin B, vitamin C, vitamin B2, vitamin B6, vitamin PP, vitamin B12, vitamin B3, etc.), which have significant health benefits. Caviar contains trace elements, mineral salts, proteins, amino acids, and fatty acids necessary for the skin. It not only effectively moisturizes and nourishes the skin, but also has the effect of making the skin delicate and smooth.
Traditional caviar comes from wild sturgeon eggs caught in waters such as the Caspian Sea, Black Sea, Salt Sea, and Azov Sea. For a long time, Russia and Iran dominated the caviar export market. But since the 1980s, wild sturgeon resources have been affected by factors such as overfishing and ecological damage, resulting in a sharp decrease in production.
2. Sturgeon caviar is expensive
There are three reasons for this
As the saying goes, rarity is precious, and the reason for the significant increase in the value of caviar is its scarcity.
Firstly, the breeding cycle of sturgeon is very long. It takes at least 7 to 8 years for a sturgeon that meets the standards for caviar production to reach sexual maturity and lay eggs, and some species may even require more than 10 years.
Secondly, the processing technology requirements for sturgeon roe are very high, with at least ten processes to be completed within 15 minutes each time, in order to meet the requirement of freshness preservation.
Furthermore, the demand for caviar in the three major consumer markets of Europe, the United States, and Asia is increasing, and wild sturgeon resources are gradually decreasing. Therefore, the price of caviar continues to rise, becoming one of the world's recognized luxury goods.
In 2000, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora defined wild sturgeon as a species on the brink of extinction, and the official ban on fishing for wild sturgeon was the fundamental reason for the prosperity of commercial farms. In recent years, with the success and promotion of artificial breeding and aquaculture technology for sturgeon, the sturgeon farming industry has developed rapidly, producing caviar that is comparable to wild caviar. Not only is the quality good, but the quantity is also more guaranteed.
The main reason why Chinese caviar can be mass-produced on a large scale now is that it has overcome the global challenge of domesticating wild sturgeon and opened up the world's largest sturgeon breeding and processing industry, achieving the stage for Chinese sturgeon caviar to enter the world. According to the China Fisheries Statistical Yearbook, the production of sturgeon aquaculture in China was only 11000 tons in 2003, but by 2020, it had reached 104000 tons. In 2014, China's caviar production accounted for 10% of the world's total, and by 2019, China's caviar production had already accounted for 70% of the world's total.
3. Caviar processing
Preservation is key
The caviar currently available in the market is mainly made from commercially farmed fish. The quality of farmed caviar produced in China can be compared to wild caviar. Chinese caviar with good quality, reasonable price, and sufficient supply is increasingly favored by the global catering industry and consumers.
The basic operational techniques for the production and processing of sturgeon caviar are not complicated, and skilled process control allows workers to quickly, stably, and accurately complete 16 processes including raw materials, egg retrieval, ovarian grading, seed retrieval, rinsing, selection, pickling, draining, drying, packaging, and finished product storage within 15 minutes. During this period, in order to produce high-quality caviar, the processing technology requires strict control over parameters such as temperature and time.
The workers are busy preserving sturgeon roe| Let's get new! Mountains, Rivers, Lakes, and Seas
The breeding experience and processing technology level determine the specifications and quality of sturgeon caviar, as well as the product price. To ensure the freshness of fish eggs, the time for each process should be as short as possible; Over time, the freshness of fish eggs will decrease and the quality of the product will decline. The production and processing of caviar should ensure a long-term stable supply of high-quality caviar, while ensuring that each batch of caviar products has similar size, elasticity, taste, and color.
Strictly speaking, only caviar produced from sturgeon roe can be called caviar, and the price of real sturgeon caviar is between 10,000-30,000 RMB/kg, which is very expensive. Authentic sturgeon caviar usually has traceability certification. If necessary, it is recommended that consumers purchase it through legitimate channels.
Perhaps we often see other types of caviar on the market, but in reality, many of them are not real caviar. These "caviar substitutes" are not caviar made from sturgeon seeds, but mostly fish roe from round finned fish, salmon, and cod. The source of salmon roe sauce is salmon fish from the Salmonidae family, commonly including Atlantic salmon, Pacific salmon, and rainbow trout (all of which can be called salmon). The particles are generally large and plump, making it a sushi companion. The usual price is around 200 yuan/kg, which is cost-effective.
Carrying out artificial ecological aquaculture of sturgeon can not only meet people's demand for sturgeon products, but also alleviate dependence on and destruction of wild resources. Carrying out artificial breeding and release of sturgeon, supplementing the natural water resources, can help restore ecological balance and play a good role in protecting wild sturgeon resources.
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