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When it comes to purchasing fish – fish to eat that is – you might often wonder what the difference would be from buying fish at your local shop, fish from a fish mongers, or fish online. People sometimes are skeptical about purchasing fish online, but there is actually a lot of benefits when it comes to looking at your options online. Many, many places now sell fish, that can be delivered straight to your door, through online services. Places like Seafresh have a bunch of options, both caught and fish farmed, that will allow you to get your fish fix without leaving your house. Let’s dive into what you should think about when purchasing fish online.
How Fresh is “fresh”
When it comes to purchasing fish, you have to think about where these fish have come from, before showing up in your store. If you don’t live within 100 miles of an ocean or lake where you can find your desired fish, they might be traveling quite far to actually make it to your local shop. This travel time will make your fish less fresh – you can find that fish are actually several days old by the time they reach the fish counter, and continue to sit until you are able to select and purchase them. When it comes to purchasing fish from places like Seafresh – the fish themselves are frozen the moment they are caught and cleaned, preserving them until they make it right to your door. Freezing fish once it is caught will also preserve it’s nutrients, making it better for you. With this in mind, frozen fish might be more fresh then fish that haven’t been frozen but have traveled to get to your location.
Packaging
There are lots of different packaging when it comes to mailing anything. Some packaging, as you may have guessed, works better than others when it comes to keeping fish fresh. Whether you are going an online route or are purchasing fish in-store, you’ll want to take a look at the packing around the fish. Fish that are packed into styrofoam and then into a freezer are probably best to be avoided, where as vacuum-sealed fish should be the standard you need. As long as these packages are properly sealed, your fish will be far fresher than ones exposed to air. When going with frozen fish, you can also find fish with a thick, almost glaze on them, which is also another good bet.
The Fish Itself
When it comes to the fish itself, you will want to check to make sure the fish was stored properly. If your fish has cloudy eyes or isn’t a uniform color, the fish is aged. Fish should always be a uniform color and not faded in the look of it. Their gills should have a red or pink color to them. Once your fish gets to your door, the packaging should also have no blood inside of it, only the fish itself, to ensure it is very fresh and frozen correctly.
Freezing
When it comes to freezing fish, you can put them in your freezer for up to 3 months before they will need to be replaced. This is a pretty big time frame, so you could easily stock up and have fish throughout the year after one order. When it comes to keeping fish fresh, sometimes freezing at the moment of catch and continuing to freeze until you are ready to eat it, is actually a better way to purchase fish, especially if you don’t live anywhere where you can eat fish caught locally.
Thank you for sharing this info. Now I know what to look for when buying fish online. This is very helpful!
Glad to help!
I have never really thought about doing this to be honest. I have a fruit and veg box delivered fortnightly so I will certainly think about maybe doing this.
It might be worth considering!
Thank you for the post, very helpful for the next purchase!
Glad you found it useful!
I wish we had a local fish market. We love fish but the fresh fish here is so expensive!
Possibly buying online might fix that!
I love to eat fish, so this was very helpful and a great resource!
Glad you found it helpful.
We live in San Francisco and since it is close to water we have our choice of a variety of fresh fish every day.
That is so good!
I always wonder how long things will keep properly in the freezer. I wish everything had that kind of date on it so we’d know, but nothing does, so I’m glad when people share their knowledge about it! Fish lasts forever here, but it doesn’t last long at my granddaughter’s house, that child is a FISH lover!!!
Oh wow, it is so good to properly label!
These are great tips. I wouldn’t normally think of buying fish online but I can see the benefits of doing so.
Sometimes, especially during boughts of being unable to go to a store, it’s really useful.
Thank you so much for this! I have found a couple of websites where I was contemplating buying fish online, but I was skeptical about it.
It is something I was sceptical about too.
This is really educational. I would be skeptical but I have begun buying meat online, so I am more open.
It is something that is worth researching first.
I didn’t even know that you could buy fish online! thanks for sharing these great tips!
You can, and it’s so easy too!