Recently, in the Xinfadi wholesale market in Beijing, the new crown virus was detected on the salmon case board, and it was close to the strain circulating in Europe, and the salmon we are familiar with is basically imported from Northern Europe.
This has caused a lot of trouble for salmon, which has already conquered the taste buds of people around the world, at least in many markets in China, salmon has been removed from the shelves.
So why are our salmon imported? Where do these salmon mainly come from? Can we still eat salmon?
About salmon
Salmon originally referred to Atlantic salmon, "Norwegian salmon" is its original name, which was directly transliterated when it was first sold in Hong Kong.
This fish live in colder places and have a very interesting habit of flocking to fresh water every year to spawn, which is known as the migration of fish.
Speaking of migratory, you may think of salmon, but salmon and salmon belong to the same family (salmonids), so their habits are similar.
Of course, we now basically call all salmon salmon, and over time, everyone thinks that salmon is salmon.
Pictured: a brown bear waiting for a salmon to migrate
In addition, the "salmon" we eat now is no longer specifically referring to a kind of fish, not necessarily the Atlantic salmon, it may also be king salmon, red salmon, dog salmon, etc., and even freshwater rainbow trout, because the meat quality of these salmon is basically the same, it is difficult for ordinary people to eat it, but after changing the name of "salmon", the "value" doubles.
Many people think of salmon when they talk about Japanese cuisine, but in fact, Japanese cuisine has not been introduced for a long time, and in 1980, Japan imported the first salmon from Norway.
China, too, has not been introduced salmon for a long time, and the main importer is Norway, and customs data from January to April this year shows that Norway accounts for 45% of all chilled salmon imported by China.
So, China has always been a country with a lot of land, why do we rely on imports of salmon?
Is there salmon in China?
As we said earlier, this fish lives in a colder place and likes to migrate from the sea to freshwater to spawn, and of course there are places in China that meet such conditions, that is, our Great Northeast.
In the northeast of the Songhua River, Ussuri River, Tumen River and other river systems, there are "salmon" migratory spawning every year, but there are only three species of Masu salmon, red hemp salmon and dog salmon.
Moreover, the estuaries of these rivers are mostly not in the territory, so those high-quality "salmon" have long been caught by other countries, and the quality of them is average here.
Pictured: Rainbow trout
Therefore, most of the "salmon" we produce is exported in the form of freezing, after all, exports can make the price rise!
We also mentioned the rainbow trout earlier, which also belongs to the salmonid family, so its fleshy appearance is certainly similar to that of Atlantic salmon, so many merchants use it as salmon to sell.
CCTV Finance reported that one-third of the "salmon" in the Chinese market has been contracted by artificially farmed rainbow trout on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.
Leaving aside the coronavirus, this practice of eating freshwater fish raw is also undesirable because the parasites of freshwater fish are more likely to survive in the human body.
Pictured: Salmon farm
Can I eat salmon raw?
Salmon contains a lot of high-quality protein and Ω-3 series of unsaturated fatty acids, in fact, there is not much difference in the nutritional value of raw and cooked food.
However, as imported ingredients, it is difficult to trace the health of the processing personnel in the processing of food products, and most viruses can survive in cold environments, although they are not active.
The standard temperature for international cold chain transportation is -18 °C ~ -22 °C, although such a temperature can kill some parasites, but the new crown virus or other viruses can be stored for a long time when leaving the host.
Fortunately, most viruses are dissociated at high temperatures because they are simple in structure and cannot self-regulate; similarly, most parasites can be killed at high temperatures.
So deli salmon is a better option, unless you really like that raw taste.
At last
Although the new coronavirus was detected on the salmon board this time, this does not mean that the salmon will not be eaten in the future.
And the new crown virus is not infected with salmon, but the salmon is contaminated during processing, which can be in the foreign link or in the domestic link.
However, it is better not to eat salmon raw anyway, because cooking it can kill most viruses and parasites.