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Norwegian fishermen are tough, stubborn, and set in their ways. Despite all that,they’re very popular around the globe. What’s their claim to fame? Norwegian Salmon. After all, salmon is their specialty, and they smoke it over the finest Norwegian woods. Compared to Scottish Salmon, Norwegian Smoked Salmon tends to be more mild, delicate, and moist. And you’ll definitely taste the tradition. But those tough fisherman wouldn’t have it any other way.

Today, Norwegian salmon enjoys a good reputation all over the world. While salmon was once a luxury item, mainly consumed in restaurants, it has now become a natural food item in the supermarkets. The large growth is attributed to two conditions: A relatively low price, which makes it competitive with both meat and other fish, and a stabile year-round supply. Even if norwegian salmon has become an affordable mass product, this has not decreased its status as a very attractive raw material. It has a nice colour, lots of taste, and a firm and fine consistency that make it well suited for more uses than other fish. Its position is also strengthened because people are becoming more concerned with health and a healthy diet.

The fear that the salmon isn’t safe to eat can be enough for the new large consumer groups not to buy it. Even if Norwegian salmon today is of high quality, it is particularly important within the institutional market that one can document that the salmon is a safe product. Food safety has become even more important after the problems in the meat industry in Belgium and Great Britain, for example. There is no reason to be concerned about eating Norwegian salmon, says the National Institute of Nutrition and Seafood Research (NIFES).

The Norwegian Food Safety Authority has data from Norwegian monitoring programmes which refutes the assertion made by American scientists claiming that Norwegian farm-raised salmon contain excessive levels of PCB, dioxins and other toxic substances. The Norwegian Food Safety Authority has asked the National Institute of Nutrition and Seafood Research (NIFES) to take a closer look at the American study. Some of the information given in the study gives reasons to believe there are weaknesses in the conclusions from the study.

"The Norwegian data we have on this area are based on larger and broader studies of the occurrence of contaminants in farmed salmon than the American study," says Are Sletta in the Norwegian Food Safety Authority’s section of Contaminants and Food Additives. Also the Food Standards Agency in the UK counters the study and says in a press release that the study does not give rise to concern.

Norwegian Salmon is probably the one most popular norwegian seafood export item. Today, Norwegian salmon is eaten in more than 100 countries, and salmon account for 32.2% of all exports of fish products from this country. An important feature of the salmon is that it can be prepared for the table in an endless variety of ways, and it has gradually come to play a central role in the food habits of people all over the world. Norway exports around 500,000 tonnes of Norwegian salmon and trout.

The Seafood Norway recipe database has a huge collection of salmon recipes.

11/2/2004