Caviar: What Is It, Where Does It Come From, and Why Is It So Expensive?

I've never seen or eaten, I only hear about it. Of course we are talking about caviar! When talking about this delicacy, the idea of ​​luxury and wealth comes to mind. But why is this food so exquisite and sophisticated? This doubt is very common among people.

First, the price is exorbitant and, therefore, only people with a high purchasing power often enjoy this type of food.

But what is caviar anyway?

The name caviar is used only for roe from wild sturgeon species, especially those from the Caspian Sea and its tributaries.

The caviar is in the form of slimy balls. But actually they are unfertilized eggs of wild fish.

Specifically, the best-known fish is the sturgeon, which are found in the Caspian Sea. The sturgeon after the whale shark is the largest saltwater fish in the world.

Because it is difficult to find and endangered, caviar can be extracted from other wild fish such as salmon, trout, lumpo and mullet. Furthermore, sturgeon needs a long period to reach maturity.

Being found mainly in sophisticated canapés, which appear more at millionaires' parties, this type of food does not have any additives, dyes or preservatives.

How is the extraction of eggs?

The caviar production process is complex and involves a certain insensitivity, which is why it is highly criticized by protectors and defenders of animal rights.

To carry out the extraction, the female must still be alive, since at that moment the eggs have not yet been fertilized. This is because, if she is dead, the female releases harmful toxins into the eggs, which makes them unfit for consumption.

After taking the eggs from the live female, they are sieved, washed and drained and sorted according to consistency, size and color.

After this process, the eggs are salted in a maximum time of 15 minutes after extraction, then they are slightly dried and packaged in hermetically sealed cans, where processes of maturation. They cannot be pasteurized.

Finally, the female is killed and sent for the production and sale of her meat.

Marketing of caviar

salmon caviar

To get an idea, this product can yield more than millions of dollars annually. Basically, the caviar price can reach R$ 6 thousand or even more for a simple 125 gram can. In general, 1 kg of food can cost 1,000 dollars.

In Brazil, the cheapest brands can cost around R$ 150.00 per 100g.

In addition to gastronomy, caviar is also used for the production of some cosmetics for skin rejuvenation treatment. This is due to a nourishing substance called vitelline, which is rich in phospholipids and phosphoproteins.

And so why is it so expensive?

As stated earlier, its import process, the long period for the sturgeon to reach maturity, its risk of extinction, the complex process of extracting the roe and storing it so that the product is always fresh justify its exaggerated price.