Tips for Buying Fresh Fish and Friends

The best way to guarantee you are buying fresh fish is looking at, smelling and (if possible) feeling what is on offer. Whatever the variety, whole fish have certain characteristics that indicate freshness.

Buying whole fish, look for:

• Moist, and even slippery
• Shiny skin, with scales that adhere tightly. Characteristic colors and markings start to fade as soon as a fish leaves the water.
• Bright red or pink gills. Avoid fish with dull-colored gills that are gray, brown, or green. Fresh fish should be free from slime.
• Firm flesh, which bounces back when touched. Fresh fish will give slightly, then spring back into shape when gently pressed.
• Crystal clear eyes - not sunken into the surrounding skin. Bright, clear, full eyes that are often protruding. As the fish loses freshness, the eyes become cloudy, pink, and sunken.
• A fresh smell. Fresh fish shouldn't smell fishy. It should have a fresh, ocean smell.

Buying fillets or steaks, look for:

• Firm and elastic flesh and a fresh-cut, moist appearance, with no browning around the edges.
• Clear white or red color, depending on the variety of fish. Fresh fillets have a bright, shiny colour without browning. Filleted flesh separates if it is left too long in the case. The flesh should be translucent, light will shine through it. There should be little evidence of bruising or reddening of the flesh from retention of blood.
• Even coloring
• Moist appearance
• A fresh smell. All fresh fish should have no fishy or ammonia smell.. It should have a fresh, ocean smell.
• Prepackaged steaks and fillets should contain a minimum of liquid.

Buying shellfish, look for:

• Shellfish may be sold live, cooked, or fresh shucked.
• The form depends on availability and the shellfish itself. Each form and species will have different quality signs to examine.
• Odor is one quality indicator that should be sweet and mild, not overly fishy for all fresh shellfish. This odor has been likened to a fresh sea breeze or seaweed.

The shells of live clams, oysters, or mussels should be tightly closed. Look for:

• Fresh mussels, oysters, clams are sold live because when they die, their internal organs start to deteriorate. This way fresh shellfish should have unbroken shells and should be closed. If the shells gape slightly, tap them: the shells should close up. If they do not close up, throw them away.
• The shells of fresh, live shellfish should be shiny and moist. It should smell sweet and mild, like a fresh sea breeze.
• Fresh lobster and crabs are also sold alive, because they spoil quickly when they die. Thus when selecting them they should show leg movement (they will not be very active if they have been refrigerated, but they should move at least a little bit).
• Raw shrimp meat should be firm and should smell mild. The shells should not have blackened edges, black spots or other dark areas, because this indicates loss of freshness.
• When buying fresh squid, select those with clear and full eyes, the skin should be cream-colored with reddish brown spots (when they start losing freshness the skin turns pinkish) and the meat should be very firm.
• Fresh shucked oysters should have a fresh smell. A clear slightly milky or light grey liquid should surround freshly shucked oysters.

And last but not least, when shopping buy your fresh fish or seafood last and then take them home straight away to storage them appropriately.