Pangasius, or shark catfish, appeared in huge quantities on the shelves about ten years ago and immediately became incredibly popular because of its cheapness. His fillet was cooked at home, eaten in canteens, served even in budget cafes and restaurants. And only after some time they began to wonder: is there a mousetrap under this tasty and almost free “piece of cheese”? Why such a price? How is pangasius grown, how is it fed, and is it harmful to eat dishes from this fish?
Mekong and surroundings
So, what kind of animal it is and what it is eaten with, the reader must know. But where is it traded? How to grow? Pangasius in Vietnam is almost the main fish product. The Mekong River - its natural habitat - originates in the upper reaches of Tibet and feeds on glaciers, and in the lower reaches - rains. The delta of this largest waterway in Indochina has become home to hundreds of species of creatures and feeds millions of people.
Shark catfish is unpretentious, growing rapidly and in just fifteen years has become the basis of the economy of the southern regions of Vietnam. In one of the villages he even put a monument. Many live right on the river and raise fish for their own food (in nets or baskets under huts on pontoons - in a natural environment). This method is very different from how exported pangasius is grown. To meet the requirements for purity and quality of products, manufacturers have to make remarkable efforts.
Domestic and foreign markets
Small farms and large industrial enterprises are engaged in breeding pangasius for sale. This happens in artificial reservoirs, and not in the river itself. And although the water in these ponds still gets from the Mekong, in composition and purity it can be very different from the original.
These factors (where and how pangasius fish are grown) determine whether it will be sold for domestic consumption or suitable for shipment abroad. But the export option is not the same: to European consumers, the fillet gets completely cleared of excess fat, neatly packaged and looks very attractive. We most often see on the shelves ice-stratified formations of an indefinite color, sometimes without packaging at all. The difference, of course, is in price, and it is considerable.
Where is the truth?
Information about how to grow pangasius fish in Vietnam is rather contradictory: there are frank opponents and ardent defenders of this product. Opinions regarding the benefits of eating pangasius meat are also different.
Among its beneficial properties are called high protein content, low calorie content and saturation with fatty and organic acids. At the same time, the entire breeding process, or rather, the conditions under which this process takes place, can negate all the benefits. So what are the features of such a business? Why is this fish causing so much controversy? In what conditions do they breed her? How to grow?
Pangasius, whose habitat is the Mekong River, as already mentioned, is an object of trade and is in great demand. Still would! The fish is tasty, cooks quickly, benefits the body … Stop! The last point causes many some doubts. Why? Yes, because river water poisoned by chemical and organic waste can make any product poison. Opponents object to them: is Mekong dirty? Since "the truth is always somewhere nearby, " we’ll try to get to the bottom of it.
Cons Opinion
Mekong is a terribly littered river. Apart from an incredible amount of domestic and industrial waste and wastewater, it is full of toxic substances that were sprayed abundantly over Vietnam during the war. How is pangasius grown in such mud?
Since the shark catfish is omnivorous, they feed it with everything, including feces. To accelerate the growth of fish stuffed with antibiotics, hormones and it is still unknown what toxic muck. To increase weight, carcasses are washed in polyphosphates, which help absorb moisture. Because of this, most of the finished product is water from the same Mekong. During delivery from the place of production to the point of sale, the fillet can be thawed several times and frozen again, which does not add freshness to it. In processing factories, terrible unsanitary conditions reign; fish is teeming with parasites.
Opinion for
If the Mekong is so polluted, how does an enormous amount of animals, birds and insects survive and feel there? Enough time has passed since the time of war for nature to recover, and garbage is carried by the current into the ocean. In addition, in dirty water, the fish would simply die. About omnivorous: pigs also eat everything. And beloved by many crayfish, which are so tasty with beer, eat carrion. So what? And then, in Vietnam, thousands of tons of pangasius are produced. Where to get so much edible garbage? Parasites can be in any fish. For this, there is heat treatment. Antibiotics are also injected into chickens, but we don’t stop eating them.
Reality
Pangasius is exported to many countries of the world, including European countries, in which they carefully monitor the quality of imported products. In Russia, Rosselkhoznadzor does this. Periodically, imports are banned due to insufficient quality of the goods. The list of companies that are allowed to import such fish as pangasius into the Russian market is being updated. Where is it grown for export? As a rule, these are quite large manufacturers with licenses of HACCP (international food safety management system). Water in ponds and pools is regularly cleaned with powerful filters and saturated with oxygen using special aerators. The sanitary condition of these enterprises is at the level of world standards, otherwise it would simply be impossible to see this fish on the shelves of the countries of Europe and the USA.
She feeds on special granules, made mainly from fish waste (heads, bones, entrails), enriched with vitamin and mineral supplements. Of course, not everyone has the opportunity to purchase high-quality equipment and feed, so the way they grow pangasius on small farms is sometimes shocking. In a cramped and insufficiently clean environment, the fish becomes ill, and antibiotics are already used. But this product has practically no chance to enter foreign markets - it is consumed domestically.
To take or not to take
Pangasius, despite all the myths surrounding him, is an ordinary fish grown on a farm. Trout, carps and sturgeons are bred on similar farms in other countries. Of course, you can eat it. It is unlikely that the harm from it is more than from the same legs stuffed with medicines.
But at the same time, when buying, you must definitely pay attention to several factors:
1. Color. Yellow fillet - the lowest grade, indicates that the fish grew in poor conditions; red - lacked oxygen or filet was colorized; light pink and white are colors that can be more or less trusted.
2. If you have a choice, it is better to take a carcass, not a fillet, since all fillets imported into Russia are processed by polyphosphates to increase weight. Suppliers claim that it is completely harmless and deprives the fish of a specific "river" smell, but who will give a guarantee?
3. Glazing, or glazing. Freezing in a layer of water is a technique used by manufacturers to protect products from airing, but this should be a thin crust, not a huge block of ice.
4. The amount of fat. The smaller the better: a large amount of fat is present in the cheapest, which means low quality product.
5. Price. The cost of pangasius is already quite low. Therefore, with absolutely unrealistic cheapness, it is better to refrain from buying - there is a possibility of acquiring stale goods delivered to a point of sale in violation of storage standards.
