Is it safe to eat the Basa fish that costs only a few dollars a bag in the supermarket?

Have you noticed that restaurants love to use Basa fish in their dishes? Whether it’s pickled fish, boiled fish or grilled fish, if the fish served is boneless and tender, it’s definitely made from Basa fish.

Why do restaurants like to use Basa fish so much?

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The reason is simple. Just go to the refrigerator area of ​​the supermarket and compare the price of Basa fish with other fish, and the answer will be clear - cheap .

Even the cheapest grass carp costs more than 10 yuan per catty, and the prices of better quality black carp, Qingjiang fish, etc. are double that.

Why is Basa fish so cheap? What kind of fish is it?

Why is Basa fish so cheap?

Basa fish is actually the trade name of this fish in the market. Its formal name is Bo's giant catfish.

Yes, Basa fish is actually a kind of catfish. It is a distant relative of the native catfish and flower catfish that we usually eat. No wonder the meat of Basa fish is also soft and tender.

If you see the whole appearance of the Basa fish before it is dismembered into fillets by humans, you will find that it is not only similar to the local catfish in terms of meat texture, but also very similar in appearance - slippery and scaleless all over, with two long, shiny whiskers on the lips.

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Not only does Basa fish look like a catfish, its living characteristics are also very typical of catfish.

Basa fish are omnivorous fish, and their requirements for feed are not very high, basically they will eat whatever they are given. Moreover, they grow very fast, and it only takes a few months for them to grow from fry to big fish that can be taken out of the pond.

More importantly, they don’t even have very high requirements for their living environment. Even if the oxygen content is slightly lower, the water quality is slightly worse, and there are more fish living in the same pond, they can still live comfortably and grow meat.

Being easy to raise, fast-growing and not picky, Basa fish is particularly suitable for large-scale farming by humans. The scale of farming also reduces costs. This is the fundamental reason why Basa fish is cheap - the cost of raising high-quality Basa fish is not high.

In Vietnam, Thailand and other regions where Basa fish are farmed all year round, not only is the cost of farming Basa fish kept low, but the number of times the fish are released from the ponds can be reduced to twice a year. It is no wonder that Basa fish can firmly hold the throne of the most cost-effective fish.

However , fresh basa fish cannot be found in supermarket freezers in China from Vietnam and Thailand. Therefore, the basa fish that come to us are all processed fish fillets .

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In order to preserve freshness and prevent the fish meat from losing water after long-term storage and transportation, Basa fish fillets are often soaked in a food water-retaining agent containing phosphate and then wrapped in a thick layer of ice.

Although this can retain moisture in the fish meat, it will also affect the taste of the fish meat, making it taste watery and soft. It does not have the fibrous feeling of the meat like the wild catfish and flower catfish, and the delicious flavor of the fish meat itself is basically lost.

Is someone using Basa fish to impersonate Longli fish?

In the market, Basa fish is sometimes sold under the name of freshwater dragon fish.

Speaking of Longli fish, you may wonder, what kind of fish is this Longli fish?

In fact, the longli fish is the tongue sole commonly mentioned on the seashore. It is named because of its laterally flattened body in the shape of a tongue. Longli is a general term for a variety of fish in the family Glossodactylidae of the order Pleuronectiformes in Guangdong Province. Therefore, it is easier to pronounce than tongue sole, and the name longli fish has become the common trade name for this type of fish.

Because the longline fish is flat, after peeling the skin and removing the main bones, only a thin and flat fish fillet is left, which gives the basa fish an opportunity to take advantage of the popularity.

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Although Basa fish and longli fish are completely unrelated, as one is a sea fish and the other is a river fish, one is a catfish and the other is a flounder, they look too similar after being cut into fish fillets, so many unscrupulous merchants will sell Basa fish under the name of longli fish.

Some of the more conscientious ones just use Basa fish to attract attention, and the price remains the same. The unscrupulous ones will directly ask you to buy Basa fish at the price of longli fish, after all, the price of longli fish is more than twice that of Basa fish, and most people can't tell whether it is Basa fish or longli fish in front of them.

However, once cooked, the difference in taste between the two is quite obvious.

Basa fish fillets are usually thicker, and the meat is not only tender but also juicy. Unfortunately, although the taste is good, Basa fish does not have any outstanding flavor. If it is not seasoned with additional seasoning, it will make people feel that it is tasteless. In comparison, longli fish is much better. It has a delicate and soft taste, and it also has a unique sweet taste, and the flavor is very outstanding.

If you don’t want to buy Basa fish at the price of Longli fish, you can remember the following selection points:

①If it is too cheap, it is definitely not a real dragon fish;

② Freshwater dragon fish is Basa fish;

③ If the origin is marked as Vietnam or Thailand, it is most likely Basa fish;

④The fish with Cabasa or Basa written on the packaging are all Basa fish.

Of course, if you are not cheated by unscrupulous merchants, Basa fish itself is actually a very high-quality and cost-effective source of protein, but you also need to pay attention when buying Basa fish:

Don’t buy fish that are too cheap because the ice coat may be thick; don’t buy fish fillets that are obviously shrunk or dehydrated; don’t buy fish that are near their expiration date.

Planning and production

Review | Ruan Guangfeng, Deputy Director of Kexin Food and Health Information Exchange Center

Editor: Zhong Yanping

Proofread by Xu Lailinlin

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