Caviar

Caviar, sometimes called black caviar, is a luxury delicacy, consisting of processed, salted, non-fertilized sturgeon roe. 1 The roe can be "fresh" non-pasteurized or pasteurized, the latter having much less gastronomic and economic value.

Traditionally the designation caviar is only used for sturgeon roe from the wild sturgeon species living in the Caspian Sea, in most cases from Azerbaijan, Russia or Iran Beluga, Ossetra and Sevruga caviars . These caviar varieties, according to their quality based on flavour, size, consistency and colour can reach February 2009 prices between 6,000 and 12,000 per kilo, and are associated with gourmet and Haute cuisine environments.

Depending on specific national laws, the name caviar may also be used by a variety of less expensive products, substitutes and imitations of caviar such as salmon roe sometimes called red caviar , trout roe, lumpfish roe, etc.

However, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization, roe from any fish not belonging to the Acipenseriformes species including Acipenseridae, or sturgeon stricto sensu, and Polyodontidae or paddlefish are not caviar, but "substitutes of caviar". 3 This position is also adopted by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, 4 the World Wide Fund for Nature, 5 the United States Customs Service, 6 and the Republic of France.

Caviar is commercially marketed worldwide as a delicacy and is eaten as a garnish or a spread for example, with hors d' uvres.

Caviar is simply sieved and lightly salted fish roe eggs . Sturgeon roe is premium and considered the "true" caviar. The four main types of caviar are Beluga, Sterlet, Ossetra, and Sevruga. The rarest and costliest is from the beluga sturgeon that swim in the Caspian Sea, which is bordered by Azerbaijan, Iran, Russia and other ex-Soviet republics. Wild caviar production has now survived only in Azerbaijan and Iran as Russia maintains a self-imposed ban on caviar trade from wild sturgeon. 8 Beluga caviar is prized for its soft, extremely large pea-size eggs. It can range in color from pale silver-gray to black. It is followed by the small golden sterlet caviar which is rare and was once reserved for Russian czars, Iranian shahs and Austrian emperors. Next in quality is the medium-sized, gray to brownish osetra ossetra , and the last in the quality ranking is smaller, gray sevruga caviar.