INDEPTH: FOOD
Caviar: The woes of roe
CBC News Online | Jan. 4, 2006
Caviar. The very word paints an instant picture of wealth and extravagance; a symbol of elegance and taste. And yes, a poster boy for conspicuous consumption and snobbishness ("the Hummer of the food world" as one periodical put it recently.) It also sounds better than what it is – unfertilized fish eggs.
Ah, but not just any fish eggs. True caviar, according to connoisseurs of the precious delicacy, is only from the roe of sturgeon, an enormous fish that has been swimming the world's seas since Jurassic Park was a current event. The roe can account for up to a quarter of the weight of a mature female.
CAVIAR GOLD
Top price for 1 kg of the finest Beluga caviar:
$8,000
Amount of illegal caviar seized by EU states from 2000 to 2005:
12,000 kg
Source: World Wildlife Fund
Sturgeon can live for 40 years or more and grow to 150 kilograms and sometimes much more. But with demand for their prized roe growing, those mature females are in shorter and shorter supply in the wild. The roe cannot be harvested without killing the fish. Many species are now endangered and international export controls have failed to reverse what has become a precipitous decline in wild sturgeon stocks. With prices soaring, the black market in illegal caviar has become so big it now far exceeds the legal harvest by some estimates. The problem is most acute in the Caspian Sea, home to the world's most endangered sturgeon populations – and the most prized caviar.
A brief history of caviar
Caviar has long been considered a "food of the gods." In ancient Persia, people thought it had medicinal powers (the word comes from the Persian word "khav-yar", meaning "cake of power.") Ancient Phoenicians made it through difficult times by salting and pickling fish eggs. During the Middle Ages, English kings declared sturgeon to be the "Royal Fish" and were the only ones allowed to eat it.
But in some areas as late as the 19th century, it was considered peasant food. Can't afford meat? Well, there was always sturgeon roe to help you get by. The abundance of lake sturgeon in the U.S. northeast and west in the early 1800s made caviar so inexpensive that saloons apparently served the salty pearls to their customers to encourage them to drink more.
Then the aristocracy in Russia and Europe developed a taste for "black gold" and the countries bordering the Caspian Sea began sturgeon fishing with a vengeance. That helped boost the popularity of caviar around the world. The sturgeon population in Ontario's Lake of the Woods area was healthy in the 1800s – that is, until the demand for caviar and overfishing depleted stocks. After the Russian Revolution in 1917, the Communists set up a cartel to sell coveted Caspian Sea caviar to the growing market of affluent Europeans and North Americans who also wanted a taste of the
delicacy Czars used to consume by the kilo.
As the world became wealthier and more populous, demand for caviar soon outstripped the supply. By 1997, it was apparent that many species of sturgeon were in big trouble from overfishing, illegal poaching and pollution. The 169 countries that are members of the UN-administered CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) brought in export controls on 25 of the world's 27 sturgeon species in 1998 (trading in the other two species is banned). In early 2006, faced with further drops in sturgeon stocks, CITES suspended all imports and exports of wild caviar until producing countries come up with plans to deal with the crisis.
In February 2007, the UN lifted its export ban on three types of caviar, including the highly prized beluga variety. A UN-sponsored conservation body said countries bordering the Caspian Sea had improved their monitoring of caviar trading. But the resumption of exports must be accompanied by additional moves to combat declining sturgeon stocks.
Varieties of caviar
ROE VS. TRADE
Estimated annual worth of legal caviar trade worldwide:
$100 million
Estimated annual worth of caviar black market:
$500 million
Sources: CITES, SeaWeb
Of all the species of sturgeon, it is the six that dwell in the Caspian that are most prized.
Most of the world's harvest takes place there, with the harvest carried out by the five countries that border the Caspian Sea – Russia, Iran, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan.
Connoisseurs – and their wannabe followers – insist that Caspian caviar has the highest quality and the best taste. There are three main varieties: Beluga, Osetra and Sevruga. And of these, it is Beluga caviar (from the white Beluga sturgeon: Latin name Huso huso) from Russia or Iran that garners the most glowing reviews. One website describes it this way: "Extremely mild, buttery flavour. Exquisitely delicate, soft, and smooth, with a hint of sweetness to a slight nutty flavour." Needless to say, it is the most expensive caviar, with small 30-gram jars (a little more than one ounce) going for $200 and up.
Sturgeons do, however, live beyond the Caspian Sea and they produce caviar too. Cheaper than the Caspian varieties, it can be almost as good, the afficionados say. Really. Almost.
Food critics have waxed poetic about the caviar that comes from wild Canadian sturgeon caught in Lake Abitibi, which straddles northeastern Ontario and western Quebec. Many chefs also like the caviar yielded by farmed white sturgeon in California. Less expensive is caviar from the wild hackleback sturgeon from the
Mississippi River. But some complain of its strong aftertaste.
There are also "mock" caviars available. The roe are not from sturgeon at all, but from salmon, herring, whitefish, or trout. They often have good quality and flavour and are much more affordable that Caspian caviar. So, call it caviar if you want. But anyone familiar with the Russian and Iranian varieties will notice the difference. Caviar emptor.
How do I know if caviar at the local fish market or restaurant was obtained legally?
CITES recommends that consumers buy only from reputable merchants who routinely carry caviar all year round. Any wild caviar imported before the January 2006 export and import suspension can continue to be sold, but prices are likely to go through the roof. If caviar seems too cheap, it's probably from illegal sources.
Restaurant patrons should know that many chefs in Canada long ago stopped serving Caspian Sea caviar because of the concerns over poaching and overfishing. More than 100 restaurants in Canada, members of the Endangered Fish Alliance, do not serve caviar unless it's from sustainable sources.
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Guidelines for Healthy Eating
1. Enjoy a variety of foods.
2. Emphasize cereals, breads, other grain products, vegetables and fruit.
3. Choose lower-fat dairy products, leaner meats and food prepared with little or no fat.
4. Achieve and maintain a healthy body weight by enjoying regular physical activity and healthy eating.
5. Limit salt, alcohol and caffeine.
Source: Health Canada
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