Everything about Fish Food totally explained
» This page is about the use of fish as food; for other uses of the word, see Fish (disambiguation)
Fish as a food describes the edible parts of
freshwater- and
saltwater-dwelling,
cold-blooded vertebrates with
gills.
Shellfish, such as
mollusks and
crustaceans, are other edible water-dwelling animals that fall into the broadest category of fish.
Consumption
Fish is consumed as food all over the world; with other
seafoods, it provides the world's prime source of high-quality
protein: 14-16% of the animal protein consumed world-wide; over 1 billion people rely on fish as their primary source of animal protein. Fish is among the most common
food allergens.
Iceland,
Japan and
Portugal are the greatest consumers of fish per capita in the world.
Common species
There are over 27,000
species of
fish, making them the most diverse group of vertebrates. However, only a small number of the total species are considered food fish and are commonly eaten.
Some common food fish species are listed below:
Perishability
Fish is a highly
perishable product. The
fishy smell of dead fish is due to the breakdown of
amino acids into
biogenic amines and
ammonia.
Live food fish are sometimes transported in tanks at high expense for an
international market that prefers its seafood killed immediately before it's cooked. Delivery of live fish without water is also being explored. While some
seafood restaurants keep live fish in
aquaria for display purposes or for cultural beliefs, the majority of live fish are kept for dining customers. The live food fish trade in
Hong Kong, for example, is estimated to have driven imports of live food fish to more than 15,000
tonnes in 2000. Worldwide sales that year were estimated at US$400 million, according to the World Resources Institute.
Preservation
Fresh fish is a highly perishable food product, so it must be eaten promptly or discarded; it can be kept for only a short time. In many countries, fresh fish are
filleted and displayed for sale on a bed of
crushed ice or
refrigerated. Fresh fish is most commonly found near bodies of water, but the advent of refrigerated
train and
truck transportation has made fresh fish more widely available inland.
Long term
preservation of fish is accomplished in a variety of ways. The oldest and still most widely used techniques are
drying and
salting.
Desiccation (complete drying) is commonly used to preserve fish such as
cod. Partial drying and salting is popular for the preservation of fish like
herring and
mackerel. Fish such as
salmon,
tuna, and
herring are cooked and
canned. Most fish are filleted prior to canning, but some small fish (for example
sardines) are only
decapitated and gutted prior to canning.
Preparation
Fish can be prepared in a variety of ways. It can be uncooked (raw) (
cf. sashimi). It can be
cured by
marinating (
cf. escabeche),
pickling (
cf. pickled herring), or
smoking (
cf. smoked salmon). Or it can be
cooked by
baking,
frying (
cf. fish and chips),
grilling,
poaching (
cf. court-bouillon), or
steaming. Many of the preservation techniques used in different cultures have since become unnecessary but are still performed for their resulting taste and texture when consumed.
Nutrition and health
Fish, especially saltwater fish, is high in
Omega 3 fatty acids, which are heart-friendly, and a regular diet of fish is highly recommended by nutritionists. This is supposed to be one of the major causes of reduced risk for
cardiovascular diseases in
Eskimos. It has been suggested that the longer lifespan of
Japanese and
Nordic populations may be partially due to their higher consumption of fish and seafood. The
Mediterranean diet is likewise based on a rich intake of fish.
Fish products have been shown to contain varying amounts of heavy metals, particularly
mercury and fat-soluble pollutants from
water pollution. According to the
US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the risk from mercury by eating fish and shellfish isn't a health concern for most people. However, certain seafood contains sufficient mercury to harm an unborn baby or young child's developing nervous system. The FDA makes three recommendations for child-bearing women and young children:
1. Do not eat Shark, Swordfish, King Mackerel, or Tilefish because they contain high levels of mercury.
2. Eat up to 12 ounces (2 average meals) a week of a variety of fish and shellfish that are lower in mercury.
Five of the most commonly eaten fish that are low in mercury are shrimp, canned light tuna, salmon, pollock, and catfish. Another commonly eaten fish, albacore ("white") tuna has more mercury than canned light tuna. So, when choosing your two meals of fish and shellfish, you may eat up to 6 ounces (one average meal) of albacore tuna per week.
3. Check local advisories about the safety of fish caught by family and friends in your local lakes, rivers, and coastal areas. If no advice is available, eat up to 6 ounces (one average meal) per week of fish you catch from local waters, but don't consume any other fish during that week.
Follow these same recommendations when feeding fish and shellfish to your young child, but serve smaller portions.
Traditionally, fish that live some or part of their lives in fresh water were considered unsuitable for sashimi due to the possibility of parasites (see Sashimi article). Parasitic infections from freshwater fish are a serious problem in some parts of the world, particularly Southeast Asia. Fish that spend part of their life cycle in brackish or freshwater, like salmon are a particular problem. A study in Seattle, Washington showed that 100% of wild salmon had roundworm larvae capable of infecting people. In the same study farm raised salmon didn't have any roundworm larvae.
Fish as meat
The term "meat" has animal, vegetable and fungal applications - to wit, the "meat" of a tomato (distinct from the juice and seeds), the "meat" of a mushroom cap (as distinct from spores, gills and stems); and the edible flesh of any animal, as well as its edible organs(both as distinct from the bones, skin, feathers, fur, scales, etc.), are called "meat".
As a generic culinary and butchery term of art, "meat" refers to the muscular flesh of a mammal. This is the definition most commonly applied by governments in meat product regulation and food labeling, and in religious rites and rituals. Edible birds and fish/seafood are not "meat" under this application but are treated separately from mammals. Likewise, amphibians and reptiles, not to mention the "meat" of edible insects, arachnids, and so on.
Religious rites and rituals regarding food also tend to apply this distinction, classifying the birds of the air and the fish of the sea separately from land-bound mammals. Sea-bound mammals are often treated as fish under religious laws - as in Jewish dietary law, which forbids the eating of whale, dolphin, porpoise, and orca because they're not "fish with fins and scales"; nor, as mammals, do they "cheweth the cud and divideth the hoof."
Otherwise, seasonal religious prohibitions against eating meat don't usually include fish. For example, meat was forbidden during Lent and on all Fridays of the year in pre-Vatican II Roman Catholicism, but fish was permitted (as were eggs). (See Fasting in Catholicism.) In Eastern Orthodoxy, fish is permitted on some fast days when meat is forbidden, but stricter fast days also prohibit fish with fins and scales, while permitting invertebrate seafood such as shrimp and oysters, considering them "fish without blood."
Muslim (halaal) and Jewish (kosher) practice treat fish differently from other animal foods. Some Buddhists and Hindus (Brahmins of West Bengal state in India) abjure meat, but not fish. And while many vegetarians avoid all animal meats, often including eggs and dairy products that don't involve the death of an animal); many vegetarians will consume fish and/or poultry, which they consider "non-meat."
Pesco-vegetarians, for example, will consume fish based solely upon the fact that the fish are not factory farmed as land animals are (for example, their problem is with the capitalist-industrial production of meat, not with the consumption of animal foods themselves). Some eat fish with the justification that fish have less sophisticated nervous systems than land-dwelling creatures. Others may choose to consume only wild fish based upon the lack of confinement, while choosing to not consume fish that have been farmed.
Footnotes
Further Information
Get more info on 'Fish Food'.
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