Signs of shrimp injected with impurities

Shrimp is a food item that is easily injected with chemicals or impurities to increase its weight and keep it looking fresh for a long time. Most housewives know about this situation. Therefore, how to distinguish shrimp injected with impurities is a matter of concern for many people.

Distinguish shrimp injected with impurities

Associate Professor Dr. Nguyen Duy Thinh - former lecturer at the Institute of Biotechnology and Food, Hanoi University of Science and Technology, explained that injecting impurities into shrimp affects the health of consumers, especially when the substance is not on the list of additives and food processing aids allowed for use, or when it is not produced for use in food.

Eating shrimp injected with impurities in the long term can cause harm to the digestive tract, mildly causing food poisoning and diarrhea, and more seriously causing the accumulation of toxins and dirt in the body, causing chronic diseases.

The shrimp injected with impurities are mostly black tiger shrimp. The impurities used are usually agar powder, starch... or small, low-value shrimp that are ground. They are mixed with water to form a viscous solution to be injected into the shrimp.

If you buy dead or frozen shrimp, you can distinguish shrimp injected with impurities based on the following signs:

- If you see a shrimp that is hard and straight, it means the shrimp has been injected with impurities. Normal shrimp have a soft and curved body.

- The gills of shrimp injected with impurities are hard and swollen, while the gills of normal shrimp are soft and flat.

- Shrimp injected with impurities often have abnormally fat and stretched bodies, so fat that the segments on the shrimp's body are almost stretched, especially the segment connecting the head and body.

- Shrimp injected with impurities when newly dead often have swollen heads, raised spines, and spread tails. The shrimp's head and body quickly separate. When cooked, the shrimp will release a lot of water, the meat will shrink. The meat is loose, and the taste is blander than usual.

- If the shrimp is injected with impurities, when cooked, you peel off the shrimp shell and you will easily see the layer of jelly between the meat and the shrimp shell, especially at the head, under the gills.

According to Associate Professor Dr. Nguyen Duy Thinh, to avoid buying shrimp injected with impurities, you should buy fresh, live shrimp that are still jumping and even swimming. If you buy dead or frozen shrimp, you must observe them carefully.

You should choose shrimp with dark, shiny shells, soft bodies and tightly attached to the head, while the tails are evenly spaced and drooping. In particular, the shrimp must still have full antennae, claws, spines and legs.

In case you have to buy frozen or pre-cooked shrimp, you should check by holding the head and body of the shrimp and gently pulling it straight. If the joints on the shrimp shell are tight, it is fresh and clean shrimp; but if these joints are not tight and the head is loose, it is old shrimp and may have been injected with impurities.

How to preserve fresh shrimp

Many people are busy so they have the habit of storing food, buying shrimp to store in the refrigerator. When taken out for processing, shrimp often have black heads. To avoid this situation, you should choose to buy fresh shrimp, cut off the whiskers, then wash them thoroughly and drain them before storing.

After the shrimp has drained, you should put it in a food container, sprinkle some white sugar, and shake well. Store the shrimp in the refrigerator or freezer to preserve at low temperatures.

When frozen, the shrimp meat will not be attacked by bacteria that cause spoilage. White sugar will prevent the shrimp heads from turning black and the shrimps from sticking together. When processing, you can easily take out each shrimp.

Do not store shrimp for too long (preferably less than 30 days) because storing it for too long will lose the nutritional value of the shrimp.