It’s impossible to imagine a Christmas meal without smoked salmon: it’s definitely a holiday staple, along with snails, foie gras and oysters! France is also the leading consumer country of smoked salmon in Europe: on buttered toast as an aperitif or simply sliced as a starter, we love it. Yes, but here it is: in the supermarket, there are many references and you don’t always know which brand to turn to in order to treat yourself without putting your health at risk… or your wallet.
Exactly: to help us choose our smoked salmon for Christmas, 60 million consumers conducted two studies. The first was conducted at the end of 2020: the experts reviewed 15 smoked salmon references and 15 smoked trout references available at the supermarket. First info: out of the 3 heavy metals sought (cadmium, lead, mercury), only very slight traces of mercury were identified in certain references. Almost undetectable traces in a slice of about 40 g of smoked fish. Good news also on the side of antiparasitic substances that are known to be harmful to human health: of the 30 samples tested, none contained them.
The results for 60 million consumers are less rosy when it comes to hydrocarbons polycyclic aromatics (PAHs) – substances released during the smoking of fish, some of which are considered “carcinogenic”. Thus, the Casino Délices red label smoked salmon, the Odyssée smoked salmon and the Carrefour Bio smoked trout contained problematic PAHs. Worse: the Casino Délices smoked salmon red label would exceed the authorized values with 17 µg of benzo[a]pyrene per kilogram of fish, while the maximum value is 2 µg/kg.
Smoked salmon: first price brands should be avoided
Last concern highlighted by the survey of 60 million consumers: the salt. On average, a slice of smoked fish is enough to cover ¼ of the daily salt limit recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO). Among the smoked fish tested, the organic smoked salmon La Vie claire held the prize with 1.36 grams of salt for only 1 slice. Absolutely avoid in case of high blood pressure…
The second study was conducted this year, in 2022: this time, 20 smoked salmon and 10 smoked trout were closely examined, this time mainly on taste criteria – taste, appearance, texture, smell… If more than half of the references tested do well (with scores greater than or equal to 14/20), some products are frankly to be avoided: this is the case of Top Budget Smoked Pacific Salmon from Intermarché, Salmon Smoked Atlantic from U Prix Mini and smoked red salmon from the Pacific Landmark brand / Ronde des mers from E. Leclerc which are considered too salty, among others.
How to choose the right smoked salmon or smoked trout? First advice from 60 million consumers: for smoked salmon, it is better to avoid first-price brands, generally considered disappointing by the panel of testers. On the other hand, for smoked trout, the price does not seem to make any difference in terms of taste, smell, texture… Then, for smoked salmon again, the Red Label seems to be a guarantee of quality …provided you avoid the Casino reference above, which contains PAHs. Finally, again for smoked salmon, it is recommended to check the country of origin: in general, Scotland and Ireland have good farming practices, unlike Norway.