The "Skinny" on Tilapia

[ChefJune]

This article appeared in the New York Times Environmental section recently.

It details the reasons that farmed tilapia is not good food. I think it's worth a read.

 

[Andy M.]

Thanks for posting this.

 

[spork]

I tried tilapia when it first came to market, and wasn't impressed. I can count the number of times I've cooked or dined them since on one hand. But mostly because I'm an avid angler and tilapia are a nasty infestation of local waterways, I dislike them. Visit your local park pond; chances are good they've taken over it. I'll take a look at the article, June, thanks for the skinny.

 

[taxlady]

Thank you for posting this. I had heard that they weren't very healthy and that they were an environmental threat. It's nice to have the info with the details all in one place.

 

[Kayelle]

Very interesting June, thanks.
There was a "stomach churning" discussion here about Tilapia a while back, although I can't find it now. Anyway, it convinced me that I would never ever buy that fish.

 

[Aunt Bea]

Interesting article. I would appreciate some help in understanding what fish might be a better choice. My thought is that most anything I can buy is going to be coming from some type of fish factory. Please let me know what you think.

 

[Andy M.]

Interesting article. I would appreciate some help in understanding what fish might be a better choice. My thought is that most anything I can buy is going to be coming from some type of fish factory. Please let me know what you think.

Any well stocked fish market department will have a variety of wild caught fish. They all should be labeled as 'wild caught' or 'farm raised'.

 

[CraigC]

I'm not big on freshwater fish, although I like farm raised catfish. To me, tilapia is an invading parasite that has gotten into our freshwater systems. There are several aquaculture projects locally that have reach commercial viability, but I will never be a customer.

Craig

 

[pacanis]

I skimmed the article this morning, but must have missed the part where it said tilapia were "unhealthy". It said they were not as high on omegas as other fish, but I'm going to blindly say that that is the reason they are probably so mild and tasteless, or what's the phrase... a "blank canvas"? lol.
Not being as beneficial does not make them unhealthy.

I did read something on the farming techniques that wouldn't fly in the US, but what's new? There are many products made outside of the US for the sole reason of a more lenient gov't when it comes to certain things. I couldn't tell you the last time I saw made in the USA on the tag in my Levis.

Now don't get me wrong. I don't buy or eat tilapia, so I have no horse in this race. I tried tilapia once, but it was a little too bland for my taste, but to say you wouldn't eat it because it was farmed is like saying you won't eat pork for the same reason. IMO. Although I know there a lots of folks that don't eat any meat for just that reason.

Besides, to spurn farmed fish, fish that they say can be on your table in 12 hours, which has to be a good thing, is dampening a whole "wild caught" industry at $4 a lb more. lol

 

[babetoo]

i buy them and i eat them. i simply cannot afford the prices of other species. i think they taste good and i feel are better than eating lots of red meat.

 

[ChefJune]

I skimmed the article this morning, but must have missed the part where it said tilapia were "unhealthy". It said they were not as high on omegas as other fish, but I'm going to blindly say that that is the reason they are probably so mild and tasteless, or what's the phrase... a "blank canvas"? lol.

Then maybe you missed this part:

Compared with other fish, farmed tilapia contains relatively small amounts of beneficial omega-3 fatty acids, the fish oils that are the main reasons doctors recommend eating fish frequently; salmon has more than 10 times the amount of tilapia. Also, farmed tilapia contains a less healthful mix of fatty acids because the fish are fed corn and soy instead of lake plants and algae, the diet of wild tilapia.
“It may look like fish and taste like fish but does not have the benefits — it may be detrimental,” said Dr. Floyd Chilton, a professor of physiology and pharmacology at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center who specializes in fish lipids.

as well as the part where they mentioned they are allowed to feed the farmed tilapia hormones.

and fwiw, fish are not meant to eat "corn and soy!"

 

[pacanis]

I read that part, June. That is where I read that they are not as beneficial as other fish, fish with higher amounts of omegas. Not as beneficial does not make them unhealthy though.
Truth be told, while I loved eating the fish I used to catch, there are eating guidelines set due to the mercury levels found in the fish in Lake Erie. One could easily play devil's advocate and say you don't have that problem in farm raised fish. As with anything, moderation.

I found the article to be very objective. I didn't eat tilapia before reading the article and I won't eat it now, lol. But if I did eat tilapia, it wouldn't change my thoughts on it.

 

[Kayelle]

This is also worth the read.......

Frightening Warning About Tilapia - Netscape Home & Living

 

[CharlieD]

I would prefer different fish to buy, and I do when Sam's club has flounder filets, but sometimes they have flounder sometimes they have tilapia. I eat tilapia maybe once in two months, or even less. I do like the fact that it almost has no taste, I can make it taste the way I want with the type of sauce or the way I cook it. I do eat flounder more often. Here in MN we do not have well stocked fish market or any fish market at all. There are some Asian stores that have better selection than regular grocery stores. I simply cannot afford $15 - $25 dollars per pound of fish. Even Ocean Perch, my preferred choice, here is $6-7 per pound. It's not normal. When they say that people are less healthy than rich people they have a good reason. Poor shmucks like me simply cannot afford healthy food.

 

[buckytom]

thanks for the article june.

mmmmm, poo-fish.

watch about 1:30 in.

YouTube - Dirty Jobs - Fish Waste Water

 

[Bolas De Fraile]

The warning bells about farmed fish from Asia were rung overhear sometime ago.Talapia fish farms are now well established in the UK. I have tried it, for me its ok. Farmed fish can never have the taste or texture of wild fish.
This summer I will have to forgo catching and eating fish at our house on Hvar Croatia, we are going to land locked Serbia to visit my wifes Serbian relatives. I may try my luck fishing the Danube

 

[buckytom]

i'll bet you can catch some bluefish in the danube.

 

[ChefJune]

i'll bet you can catch some bluefish in the danube.

 

[taxlady]

The warning bells about farmed fish from Asia were rung overhear sometime ago.Talapia fish farms are now well established in the UK. I have tried it, for me its ok. Farmed fish can never have the taste or texture of wild fish.
This summer I will have to forgo catching and eating fish at our house on Hvar Croatia, we are going to land locked Serbia to visit my wifes Serbian relatives. I may try my luck fishing the Danube

I lived on a trout farm for a while. The fish there weren't fed anything for the last year before harvest. Everyone told me they were as good as wild caught trout. (I really dislike cooked trout ptui, spit, spit, so I can't say) No one mentioned texture. They were kept in very large ponds and ate whatever trout eat in the wild for that last year.

Not very "efficient" fish farming, but it produces "gourmet" farmed fish. Now, if that market could be developed...

 

[Bolas De Fraile]

Tax mate the trout I buy from my local river fed farm are the best farmed I have eaten. The biggest problem for me is their texture like with all farmed fish they don't produce enough muscle and tend to have more fat which affects the flavor.
The cheap farmed Salmon in our supermarkets smoked or fresh tastes to me like oily pink cotton wool.
I can and do buy deep loch tidal farmed Scottish and Irish Salmon which is good. We live about 5 miles from the Dee estuary and as a kid I would go with my Dad to watch the Salmon fishermen, they caught sleek bars of silver that tasted so sweet.