How many ways to understand if fish is fresh or not?

Freshness on seafood and especially in fishes is vital. Not fresh seafood is not delicious as fresh ones and also they can be poisonous. Understanding the freshness on an octopus or shrimp is very hard but it’s easier to understand it for fishes. It’s true that fresh fish must wait on shelf for only a few days and after that they will start to smell bad. It’s true that some fishermen are using special techniques to sell not fresh food but it’s not possible to make these tricks for a professional fish chooser. How many ways to understand if fish is fresh or not?


First thing you must look on the fishes must be eyes. It’s definite that fresh fish looks brighter and shiny. If fisheyes are looking faded, milky, dull, cloudy, it means fish is waiting on shelf for more than three days and it’s not fresh enough.
Second important hint fish are giving is skin color and brightness. Skin of fresh fish is metallic, bright and reflective. When fish is not fresh, it starts to lose scales. Also its skin starts to dry. Skin of not fresh fish starts to get darken. Also tail of fish should be stiff to be fresh.
Looking to gills will also give ideas about freshness of fish. They must be no slime on the gills. Also gills must have brighter and red gills as possible. If gills are brownish or dull, it means expiration date of fish is very close.

Smell of the fish is also a good indicator. Fresh fish smells like salty ocean. If fish is started to smell bad or sour it means that fish is not fresh and it can be dangerous to eat such fish on poisoning risk.
It’s true that many fishermen today sell fish as fillet. There is also some people use this technique and sell not fresh fish as fillet. It’s easy to understand if fillet is fresh or not by only touching it. When fresh fillet is touched, it returns to original shape very quick but not fresh fillet will not return to its original shape.
Months or season may also help you to find fresh food. It’s true that every area has different periods of fresh foods because of fishing limitations and fish migration periods. It’s also true that all fish types has its season so eating fish in its season means more delicious meal than ever.
In the last years, also it’s possible to see a discussion over sea and farm fishing. People think that sea fish is more delicious than farm fishes. It was not possible to hear the question in 80s about choosing farm or sea fish but today it’s possible. While some people only prefer sea fish, some people like farm fish.

Also if you want to eat delicious fish, you must wait first or last months of year. January is the period that anchovy and red mullet is very fresh and they are on the best period to eat. If you love shrimp, May is the best period for it. Also bonito is perfect to eat in September.
It’s also possible to understand fresh fish while cooking. If fish is not fresh, it will not collect much fat and will cook in a long period than fresh fish. It will also start to smell bad than smelled in the shelf. Also some fish types may start to excrete a kind of juice that smells that looks green or red and has a very bad smell at all.