Cod, did you buy the right one?

■ Haddock: Haddock

List of assessment teams

Teacher Ding: Professor of School of Oceanography and Earth, Xiamen University, fish expert

Seafood Uncle: A foodie, a living seafood knowledge base

Kobayashi: Amateur marine life research

Zhang Shuming: A well-known chef in Xiamen

Hu Xiaoqin: Editor-in-chief of the food edition of Xiamen Evening News

Cod is soft, has very few fine spines, and is rich in nutrients such as DHA and protein, which is an indispensable choice for many mothers when adding complementary foods to their babies. The reporter visited a number of large supermarkets and found that each supermarket has at least 1-2 Chinese fish called cod on sale, silver cod, real cod, cod, black cod, flat cod... Prices range from more than a dozen yuan to hundreds of yuan, and a variety of names are really difficult to distinguish between true and false.

In order to find out, Xiaobian randomly purchased seven varieties of cod with different packaging and names, and invited Mr. Ding from the College of Oceanography and Earth of Xiamen University, the expert seafood uncle who is familiar with a variety of seafood, the talent Xiaolin and the well-known chef Zhang Shuming to form an evaluation team to discuss and evaluate the market price, packaging and meat taste of each cod, and to identify the molecules through DNA bar codes to determine the true identity of these "cod".

Text/Hu Xiaoqin Yang Lu Photo/Seafood Uncle

Confusing names are also difficult for professionals to discern by appearance

The results of the evaluation showed that some Chinese products called "cod" were not really cod. Ding, a teacher at the School of Oceanography and Earth sciences at Xiamen University, said that when choosing cod, it is more accurate to compare Latin literary names, but many cod on the market are not standardized with their Latin and English names, and consumers cannot verify them. In the process of visiting, Xiaobian also found that only Tianhong and Yuanchu Foods were marked with three pieces of information at the same time: origin, Latin literary name and English name, and other merchants only marked a part or even none. Experts suggest that when selling, merchants should provide a certificate of origin indicating which cod it is, and indicate the place of origin, Latin name and English name. In many cases, even professionals cannot tell which cod is based on their appearance and segments, and the most accurate means is to use DNA barcodes for molecular identification, and determine which fish is based on the sequence characteristics of their barcodes.

However, the seafood uncle said that although it is not a real cod, but the cod sold on the market is mostly edible other fish, in addition to the Atlantic cod, black cod has a small amount of commercial artificial breeding, other cod and false cod are mostly wild, can be eaten with confidence, only the same may impersonate cod spiny snake mackerel (trade name is generally called oil fish, platinum gun, oil cod) is not recommended to eat. They contain wax esters in the body, the human body can not digest, one-time intake is easy to cause diarrhea, vomiting.

Whether it's good or not actually has nothing to do with whether cod is true or not

Steaming, tempeh three-layer meat, taji pot, sour plum steaming... In order to avoid taste fatigue, Chef Zhang Shuming used different cooking methods in the evaluation, but this did not affect our judgment of the taste of various "cod". When all the "cod" is on the table, the taste and cost performance are immediately high.

The tail of the delicious flat cod is rich in fat, and the taste is smooth and tender, and the evaluation team agrees that it is the most cost-effective, but its labeling is less standardized, and the packaging is only simply wrapped in plastic wrap. The silver cod bought from the Sam's Shop of Xia Shang International Mall was rated as the best tasting one, but after testing, this "silver cod" is actually called the small scaled canine tooth Antarctic fish. Kobayashi said that the small scaled canine tooth Antarctic fish has nothing to do with cod, and is a relative of the sea bass, but it is a real polar fish, produced in the deep sea, and its nutritional value is also high.

Rainbow's black cod is expensive, after testing is actually a bare cover fish, often mixed with cod, originally it was also a good variety, but the products evaluated on the day are slightly bitter, compared to its taste, the cost performance is not high. Although the fine-scaled cod is a cod order, the rattail cod family is not really cod in the strict sense, and the taste is too soft and rotten and has no texture. The two real cod are veritable real cod, but unfortunately, although cheap, the taste is flat, the fat content is small, and the taste is rough and the meat is too hard.

In short, from the evaluation results, whether it is delicious and nutritious has nothing to do with the authenticity of cod. The factors that determine the price of various real and fake cod include meat oil quality, nutritional value, harvest yield, processing method and popularity.

【Link】

1. What is cod

There is a cod in the fish, a cod under the cod family, a cod genus under the cod family, and there are three species in the cod genus: Atlantic cod, Greenland cod and Pacific cod, and only these three species can be called pure cod.

2. What are the common species of cod (cod)

True cod: Atlantic cod, Pacific cod (bighead cod, bighead), Greenland cod Cod; haddock: haddock; narrow cod (mingtai) :P ollock; blue cod: Blue Whiting; green cod: Saithe; water cod: Hoki striped long-tailed cod, etc.

3, which fish are called "cod" but are not

Silver cod: Merlot cod, Patagonian canine toothfish/ Small-scaled canine toothfish / Chilean sea bass, Antarctic canine toothfish / Scaly canine tooth Antarctic fish

Black cod (sable fish): Bare-lid fish, Sablefish, Black Cod, Anoplopoma fimbria

Snake Cod: Ling Cod

Oil cod: spiny snake mackerel, wax oil fish, oil fish

Flat cod: Greenland Halibut

【DNA Professional Assessment Results】

In order to thoroughly figure out the identity of these "cod", the evaluation team specially sampled and sent it to the College of Oceanography and Earth of Xiamen University, where DNA sequencing and analysis were carried out through professional equipment, and finally professional evaluation results were obtained.

1. Huiyi water cod (Wal-Mart)

Country of Origin: Unspecified

Price: 22.8 yuan / 300g

Molecular identification results: Chinese scientific name Albatrossiapectoralis belongs to the genus Offidoptera in the family Quartzidae and can be used as an edible fish.

2. Delicious scaled cod (Wal-Mart)

Country of Origin: Russia

Price: 19.8 yuan / 300g

Molecular identification results: same as 1

It belongs to the genus Trout in the family Sissycene

3. Zhenghai black cod (rainbow)

Country of Origin: United States of America

Price: 186 yuan / 350g

Molecular identification results: Chinese scientific name naked cover fish, also known as naked head fish (Anoplopoma fimbria). It belongs to the genus Gymnoflora in the family Scorpene. The liver is rich in vitamin a and vitamin D.

4. Flat cod (tasteful)

Price: 43.7 yuan / 972g

Molecular identification results: Chinese scientific name Reinhardtiushippoglossoides, belongs to the flounder genus flounder genus of flounder family flounder, which has a high economic edible value.

5. Silver Cod (Summer Merchant International Mall Sam Shop)

Country of Origin: New Zealand

Price: 138 yuan / 300g

Molecular identification results: Chinese scientific name dissostichuseleginoides, belongs to the genus Antarctica of the Antarctic family Offidae perch, also known as Chilean sea bass, has a high edible value.

6. Real Cod (Summer Merchant International Mall Sam Shop)

Price: 49 yuan / 500g

Molecular identification results: Pacific cod (Gadusmacrocephalus), also known as large-headed cod, belongs to the cod genus of the cod family. It is a high economic value edible fish.

7. Yuanhe real cod (Yuanchu food)

Molecular identification results: same as 6

It belongs to the cod family Cod in the order Cod