Smoked seafood quality

Please refer also to the general quality assessment checks for all sensory criteria , which cover all seafood.

Appearance

Check	Higher quality	Lesser quality	Comment
Flesh colour	Even, bright, glossy, golden; yellowish red or gold	Dull or matt, uneven; discoloured, fading	Colour is an unreliable guide to quality if considered in isolation. The colour depends on, for example, the original colour of the seafood, the degree of smoking, whether hot or cold smoking has been used, and whether a dye has been used to enhance its appearance. Cold-smoked seafood is often lighter in colour than hot-smoked seafood.
Condition	Smooth intact pellicle (thin skin), free of contaminants	Pellicle slightly damaged; bruising or mould growth	The loss of pellicle integrity may indicate poor handling.

Odour

Check	Higher quality	Lesser quality	Comment
	Clean, smokey aroma	Reduction of smokey aroma	Smoking may mask bad odours, flavours and defects to a certain extent, but they will still be evident. Be especially wary of unusual smells in smoked seafood—they usually indicate bad preparation or handling, or poor original quality.

Texture

Check	Higher quality	Lesser quality	Comment
	Firm and springy	Sticky, soggy, soft patches or flabby	Soft patches can be caused by parasites.

Taste

Check	Higher quality	Lesser quality	Comment
	Mildly smokey, perhaps salty	Reduction of smokey flavour, slight presence of foreign flavours or overly salty	Foreign flavours can occur when poor-quality product has been smoked.