Silver Smelt: A Valued Non-Quota Fish?

Tighter fish quotas have given rise to increased interest in non-quota species throughout the EC. In encouraging this interest, the EC Commission undertook to fund (in part) a 2-year cooperative project on catching/handling,quality evaluation, processing and suitability for products of the Silver Smelt(Argentinus silus).This project has been recently completed by staff at The National Food Centre (NFC), An Bord Iascaigh Mhara, The Department of the Marine, and at IFREMER (in France). The NFC component of the project, as presented here, dealt with the quality, composition and properties of the fish, and with its suitability for products and analogues.