Choosing a chilled trout supplier: seven questions that matter

September 2, 20265 min read

A price per kilogram tells you almost nothing about chilled fish. Two suppliers can quote the same figure for the same species and deliver product that behaves differently on the counter. These are the questions worth asking before price comes up at all.

1. The species, not the trade name

Ask for the Latin binomial, and check it reads identically on the offer, the health certificate and the label. Rainbow trout is Oncorhynchus mykiss. It is legitimately sold as trout or salmon trout; it is not salmon, which is Salmo salar and a different fish. A supplier who blurs that on paper will blur other things too.

2. The water, and what temperature it holds

Cold water grows fish slowly, and slow growth gives denser flesh. So the useful question is not whether the water is clean but what temperature it holds, and whether it still holds it in August. Ours comes from an artesian borehole in the Ararat Valley at about 14 °C all year, which is why the fish grows at the same rate in summer as in winter.

3. Hours from harvest to dispatch

This is the one freshness claim that can be measured rather than asserted. Ask for a number of hours, not an adjective. Ours is the same day: the fish leaves the site on the day it is taken from the pool.

4. Post-harvest treatment

Get a written answer on carbon monoxide and colour fixatives. CO treatment is not permitted under EU and UK standards, and a supplier who uses it without saying so hands you a problem at the border. The answer you want is none, in writing. Ours is none.

5. The feed

Feed is most of what the fish is made of. Ask where it comes from and what is not in it. Ours is extruded, from Denmark, Italy and Armenia, with no GMO, antibiotics or hormones.

6. Traceability, at lot level

A retail chain needs to trace one box back to one batch, because that is what a recall requires. Ask how far back the chain goes and who holds it. Ours starts at the roe and never leaves the farm.