How can you identify that the seafood you are going to buy is safe and quality? What storage ways work best for these products and how long can you keep them at home? These questions are quite serious and require detailed answers that will help make these aspects clear.
Choosing Seafood: Factors to Keep in Mind
To start with, you should remember that these products may have a light sea aroma, which is quite normal for this group of products. However, if you feel that the fish scent is too intense, this could be the sign of a poor quality of seafood. Furthermore, fresh fish, peeled shrimps, crabs, lobsters, oysters, mussels and scallops should be wet. If they are dry or slimy, do not buy them.
When choosing fish, pay attention to its eyes. Fresh fish has round light eyes, while the fish of poor quality frequently has dry and bleary eyes. This is one of the signs you can notice when choosing the fish. Now, let’s talk about the gills. If they are bright red and the fish is wet and springy, this means that the product is fresh and you can opt for it without any hesitations. Are the gills dull, dry, slimy or the fish is soft? Then pass by such products, because they have definitely lost their quality. Fresh shrimps, crabs, and lobsters should come with smooth and consistent coloring, while the mussels should be alive and sold in the closed shells.
How to Store Sea Food
It goes without saying that it is better to cook and eat any seafood during one and the same day. If this is impossible for some reason, then keep the products in a fridge or a freezer. It is very convenient to store fish and other seafood in the hermetically closed containers and packages, having initially put it on ice in the fridge. This method helps prolong the life of shrimps and scallops for 3-4 days, while fish may be stored fresh up to 7 days. By the way, if you freeze sea products in water, you can keep them in a freezer for 4-6 months. To unfreeze them, just pour hot water above or leave them in a fridge for the night.
Now that you know how to choose and store different kinds of sea products, you will feel safe and confident during the shopping process. What’s more, you will be sure that you have purchased a seafood of high quality that won’t threaten the health of your loved ones and will surely make any dish the highlight of your menu!
