was the daily wail
How your supermarket ‘fresh’ fish can be THREE weeks old: Seafood bought from the big four was only two days away from rotting•Fish technician tested samples and found a third were close to going off
•’Unaccpetable’ products had been on left on ice for more than 10 days
•Fish displayed for seven days deemed to be in the lower limit of acceptability
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This week, in order to find out just how fresh the fish we eat actually is, I watched as Michaela Archer, a fish technician with 17 years of experience, used an industry standard testing system, the Torry scale, to assess pieces of cod, plaice and salmon bought from the big four supermarkets and an independent fishmonger.
Of the 12 supermarket samples, a third failed to meet even the minimum level of acceptability of ten days since the fish came out of the water. In other words, they were just a couple of days away from rotting.
Michaela, who works at Seafish, a government body that promotes the fishing industry, said that these four samples provided an ‘unpleasant eating experience’ — a verdict I can confirm.
Another six of the supermarket samples were hovering around the minimum level of acceptability, while only two pieces of the supermarket fish bought were found to score above it.
Michaela said that the results were ‘resoundingly disappointing’.
‘This is a limited assessment of a small number of samples of fish,’ she said.
I come from a fishing town where you could get fish at market when i was young – the difference between supermarket fish and fresh fish is noticable.
now we also shopped at the butchers at home – the difference again between the butchers and the supermarket is noticable
the difference between tomatoes/cucumber/grapes out the green house or veg out the ground and those at the supermarket is wildly different
For the prices to be down to what supermarkets charge something has to give – and it seems to be that the quality has to give.