Being a mother for the last two years has made me much more suspicious and wary of everything. Especially when it comes to my child's diet. Thus, foods with preservatives, anything that is pre-packaged and pre-cooked, raw materials of dubious origin and in general everything that is not certified and checked with relevant certifications, etc. are immediately excluded.
The organic shop, the butcher and the fisherman (we only supply pelagic fish and not fish farming) of the area have become our best friends, as they are the only ones we trust when it comes to the little one's supplies.
You see we do not live in the decades when we were children, when food was much better quality. Nor are we in the village where we grew up with the neighbors, literally, to be the main source of food for every family.
More and more people would give us eggs from his hen house and milk from his goat and of course there were many who loved fishing and came back full of fresh fish that came directly from the sea into the oven or pan.
For the latter, however, the truth is that I have been reviewing for a few days now. A journalistic trip initiated by Lidl Hellas - for five years now offers its customers fresh fish, cleaned and ready for cooking - in the small bay of Selonda, between Corinth and Argolida, and the fish farms maintained by the company of the same name was enough to change my mind about fish that come from them, but also about fish that is available fresh and packaged ready for cooking.
Fish farming in Greece and exports
With sea bream and sea bass being the two most popular Mediterranean fish in Europe (Italy, Spain, Portugal) and North America, Greece is one of their two top exportable countries. Although until recently our country was in the first place, Turkey managed to surpass us, however, only quantitatively, as the quality of the neighbor's products have nothing to do with ours.
This is due to the fact that the companies engaged in fish farming in our country operate within the framework and with the rules of the European Union and all that this implies under the relevant regulations, which are also reflected in the quality of the final product.
Living and farming conditions of fish farmed fish
For most consumers (I used to include myself among them), then, fish from fish farms are inferior to those that live and breed freely in the seas and are caught by fishermen offshore - without Of course, to know after how long the fishing vessel from Chios, for example, reaches Attica or its respective destination and the conditions under which the fish are transported.
The myths that revolve around fish farms, thus reinforcing the above view, relate mainly to the living and breeding conditions of their fish, something that a visit to one of the facilities of Selonda (has a total of 55 marine breeding units in Greece, producing annually 32.000 tons of sea bream and sea bass) overturns, and even more so.
What I understood from our visit to Selonda Bay is that ignorance most often creates misconceptions, which we adopt without having detailed evidence and arguments to prove them.
One sentence, then, is enough to realize the truth of fish farming: fish grow in their natural environment.
Thus, until recently I was unaware of the fact that sea bream and sea bass (the fish that we find fresh, cleaned and ready to cook in the refrigerators of Lidl Hellas) are grown in clean seas of Corinth, Argolis and Arcadia for at least 18 months, fed with certified foods of high quality that meet their nutritional needs at every stage of their development and so their nutrient levels such as omega-3 fats remain constant, reared in clean water that is renewed by natural currents, packed in state-of-the-art units with a full range of certifications and are among the freshest we can find on the market, as they are caught to order.
From production to consumption
The Greek housewife, now, and even more, can easily and quickly prepare a healthy, nutritious and extremely tasty meal for the family by supplying the innovative packages of modified atmosphere used by Selonda on behalf of Lidl Hellas, bringing to the table really fresh fish (delivered fresh in stores as it is caught daily and kept in a refrigerator of 0-2 degrees Celsius), which, in fact, retains all the nutrients and their taste with preservation in a simple refrigerator.
The most reluctant consumers, however, but also those who want to know everything about the product they supply and its producer (if they ever need something like that) have other reasons to prefer these packages. Initially, the specific trays indicate the date of catch, the production unit and the packing code, while the fish are 100% ready for cooking as they are cleaned in their packaging. This means that the consumer pays only the net weight, since what can not be cooked (scales, etc.) is not included in the package.
Once we know the truth, we now have the choice, but also the ability to benefit from fish farming and to have on our table more than once a week one of the most beneficial and nutritious foods for the human body. The consumption of fish with the cleaned and filleted sea bream and sea bass that we find in Lidl stores across the country (the amount of sea bream and sea bass that will reach the shelves of the company's network stores in Greece is expected to reach 1.500 tons this year, while in 2018 the corresponding quantity was about 928 tons) it becomes even easier and faster, leaving no room for excuse for the difficult process of cleaning and cooking them.