In recent days, a video of a tiktoker, Hope Healthy Lifewhich have been replicated by many media, in which it is ensured that the blue boxes from the Mercadona fish market are those that contain fish from farms and the green ones only contain fish from extractive fishing, which comes directly from the market.
Is it a half truth, or a half a liewhich has been refuted by a Mercadona spokesperson in conversation with DAP.
The truth is yes there is a difference among the fish that is exposed in the green and blue boxes, but it is not exactly the one shared by the tiktoker.
“Indeed, the green boxes of our fish market contain fresh market fish”, they confirm from Mercadona. “But the blue boxes can not only contain fresh fish from the farm, but also fresh fish from fishing suppliers.”
How to distinguish farmed and wild fish
In any case, there is a much simpler way of distinguishing fish from aquaculture from extractive fish and which, moreover, works in any fish shop: see the labels.
A Royal Decree of 2002, which regulates the identification of fishing and shellfish products, obliges to display at the point of sale a label for each fish In which the commercial denomination of the species, its price per kilogram, the area of capture or breeding, its production method (extractive fishing or aquaculture) and mode of presentation are indicated.
A separate issue is the statement made by the tiktoker regarding the fact that fish from the market is the most “fresh” and most “natural”, something that is, simply, stupid.
Farmed fish is just as fresh and natural as fish caught using extractive techniques. There are, of course, many fish that are not produced in aquaculture and, with regard to the most common farmed species -such as sea bass, sea bream or salmon- their wild equivalent It is usually larger and more gastronomically appreciated. Also much more expensive, but by no means less fresh or natural.
Images | lucigerma
In DAP | 108 fish recipes
In DAP | The 29 best white-label products from Mercadona