Is Xinjiang salmon salmon? Yes and no

The ocean is polluted, which is really bad news for people who like to eat seafood. Therefore, Xinjiang salmon, which is farmed in inland cold water lakes, has gradually become popular. Is Xinjiang salmon really salmon?

First of all, let's talk about what salmon is. The word "Salmon" is not the name of a certain fish, but a trade name, which broadly refers to all salmon and trout. This range is very large, and the more common Atlantic salmon, Pacific salmon, rainbow trout, etc. are all included. Based on this, Xinjiang salmon is definitely salmon, because the so-called Xinjiang salmon is actually rainbow trout, which belongs to the salmon and trout family.

"Salmon" as a commodity officially entered the Chinese market 20 to 30 years ago, and the product that has been in the Chinese market the longest and is the best known is Norwegian salmon.

People are used to referring to Norwegian salmon as "salmon". Norwegian salmon is Atlantic salmon imported from Norway, so salmon in a narrow sense refers specifically to Atlantic salmon. From this perspective, Xinjiang salmon is indeed not salmon. In fact, whether Xinjiang salmon is salmon or not is not important. What people really care about is what is the difference between Xinjiang salmon and marine salmon, and whether it can be eaten raw?

From a biological point of view, Xinjiang salmon, also known as rainbow trout, belongs to the Salmonidae family and the Pacific salmon genus. It is native to the Pacific coast of North America and is closely related to Pacific salmon.

The salmon we usually call is Atlantic salmon, which belongs to the Salmonidae family and the genus Salmon. Rainbow trout is also closely related to it. However, although they are closely related, the difference between the two is still quite large, because rainbow trout is a freshwater fish, while Atlantic salmon is a marine fish. The two fish also have very obvious differences in appearance and are easy to identify. However, if the fish is not placed in front of you, but the fish meat is sold in small pieces, it is difficult to distinguish them, because the two are almost the same in terms of pattern and taste.

Precisely because the meat of the two fish is difficult to distinguish and their prices are very different, some unscrupulous merchants in the market use rainbow trout to impersonate Norwegian salmon in order to obtain a premium.

So, apart from the price factor, is there a big difference in the taste of the two fish? Some people say that rainbow trout is farmed, while Norwegian salmon is wild, and there must be a world of difference between the two. In fact, this is not the case. Rainbow trout is indeed farmed. In my country, not only Xinjiang, but also Tibet, Qinghai and other provinces have long realized large-scale breeding in cold water lakes.

Norwegian salmon is not wild as we think, it is actually farmed.

From a very early time, people have used sea cages to farm Atlantic salmon. Now, with the advancement of farming technology, Atlantic salmon farming has entered the stage of land-based recirculating aquaculture, so most of the Norwegian salmon we buy are actually farmed fish. Some people say that as a marine fish, Norwegian salmon can be eaten raw as sashimi, while rainbow trout, as a freshwater fish, cannot be eaten raw due to the presence of parasites. This statement is actually not accurate. "Salmon is a deep-sea fish and has no parasites." This was indeed the selling point of salmon when it first opened up the market, but it is not the whole truth.

Due to the different osmotic pressures between seawater and fresh water, many parasites in marine fish cannot survive in the human body. From this perspective, marine fish are indeed safer.

However, not all marine parasites cannot parasitize the human body, so marine fish are not absolutely safe. Whether it is marine fish or freshwater fish, the key to safe raw consumption is ultra-low temperature freezing, because this process can kill most parasites. In other words, as long as it has undergone strict ultra-low temperature freezing operations, rainbow trout can also meet the conditions for raw consumption. However, from the perspective of food safety, whether it is marine fish or freshwater fish, eating raw is not the most recommended.