The easiest way to determine the quality of fresh fish is 1. It should have a mild and clean smell, avoid pungent-smelling fish.
2. You should pay attention to the gills, they should be bright red or pink (if bled), the abdomen of fresh fish is flat, the eyes are slightly protruding and clear.
3. You can also press your finger on the back near the fin, if the carcass quickly regained its shape, then this product is fresh.
4. Slime without a pungent odor, which evenly covers the entire carcass, also indicates a good quality product.
The freshness of frozen fish can be judged by its appearance. 1. The gills should be grayish in color with a pink tint.
Do not buy fish if: 1. the meat of freshly frozen fish is yellowish-gray, which means that during storage and transportation there were violations of the temperature regime. 2. when the product thawed and frozen again, which deprives fish meat of all useful qualities, it is better to leave such fish on the counter.
It is more difficult to distinguish between the quality level of smoked and dried fish. 1. First you need to smell it, if there is a pungent smell or if there is none at all, this should alert.
2. Good smoked fish has a light pleasant smell of wood smoke.
3. If a pattern of depressed cells appears on the skin, then most likely the fish was smoked in the usual way, and was not processed with liquid smoke. And the uneven coloring and roughness of the carcass suggests the opposite.