Salmon That Resembles Tuna In Texture (Glenryck Red Salmon)

Member Name: janharper

Product:	Glenryck Red Salmon
Date:	04/12/08 (213 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Cheap

Disadvantages: Coarse, poor flavour, farmed fish

Glenryck medium red salmon comes in a tin with a ring pull lid. It is skinless and boneless and packed in brine.

The word 'Chile' is stamped on the top of can. I didn't notice this when I bought it, but it probably wouldn't have put me off buying it. It was a real bargain at £1 for a 220g can from our local Pound shop.

I am not a lover of salmon in any form but I do like it for making fish cakes. This is why I took advantage of the low price and bought three cans.

This comes in a low, round can and has a label showing salmon jumping and a waterfall. (A completely fictional situation for the fish in this tin!)

A closer look shows small print (I needed a magnifying glass) which says that this was produced in Chile for Glenryck Foods Ltd of Henley-on-Thames. It canned in South America and then labelled here.

The ingredients of this product are just medium red salmon, water and salt.

The nutritional information on the can is fairly comprehensive. 100g (about half a can) of drained salmon gives you 127 calories, 19.8g protein and 4.6g fat, including 1.4g omega 3.

The salt level once the fish is completely drained is only 0.6g.

This salmon comes from the very cold waters off the Chilean coast where the Pacific Ocean mixes with the Southern ocean. This area of South America is sparsely populated and there is virtually no industry except for fishing. So, the marine environment around here is unspoiled.

However, this salmon is farmed. Marine fisheries are frequently restocked with young fish bred in hatcheries. The salmon are kept in certain areas by using huge nets which stop them making for the open sea.

They are harvested and canned once they weigh around 1.3 kilograms. For the skinless and boneless varieties of salmon, the cooking is done before the fish are cleaned and skinned. Once cooked and cleaned it is canned and ready for export.

What makes this brand cheap is that the salmon comes from fish farms and not from the open sea. While the fish are being reared they are tested regularly for pesticides and antibiotics that may have been introduced through their feed.

I have never been keen on salmon but this brand made some very tasty fishcakes. I did notice that the salmon was coarser and more flaky than other brands I have tried. The meat was rather like tuna in texture and quite dark. Taste wise it was quite mild and what I would describe as insipid if eaten on its own.

I wouldn't serve this up with a salad as salmon but it would be okay mashed up in sandwiches. This company sells most of its output to the catering industry in huge vacuum sealed packs.

The discovery that this is farmed salmon rather that wild salmon has given me cause for concern about exactly what the fish are fed on.

The fact that they are regularly tested and regulated by the Chilean government for antibiotics and contaminants introduced through feeding, gives the impression that this kind of contamination is likely and needs to be monitored.

There are also the more obvious problems and concerns about animal welfare and farming fish in this manner to bear in mind.

I think that what I have discovered about this product, coupled with its low quality meat and poor texture, combine together to make me decide to give it a miss next time. I will certainly take a closer look at the salmon I am buying and its origins.

Summary: Cheap but poor quality, farmed so more likelty to contai antibiotics.