Did you know that choosing and cooking seafood carelessly can be hazardous to your health? Seafood can be healthy and delicious, only if it’s selected and processed the correct way. Here are some tips on choosing the best quality seafood.

In order to keep the nutrition safe in seafood, we must know how to select, to prepare, and to consume. Before buying seafood, let’s find out how to select seafood the right way, like in this guide below. This is meant to avoid the hazardous effects that can develop from seafood.

Buy the seafood in a trustworthy market. A savvy seller will always store seafood in a cold temperature of 0-80 degree Celsius inside a pan full of ice. This pan also needs to have drainage for the water from the melting ice in order to avoid putrefaction.

Check the quality and its cleanliness. Fresh seafood will look clean and free from insects. The seller must use disposable gloves, and able to answer questions concerning the freshness of the seafood that he sells.

Smell the aroma. A fresh fish has a sea-like aroma; it does have a strong fishy smell. If you press the fish, it will feel springy; the fin and scales sticks firmly to the skin. The skin color has to be in a metallic color, shiny and not dull. The gill’s color is pink or bright red, slime-free or mud-free. The fish’s eyes has to look sharp, shiny and bulging out.

A good fish fillet does not smell too fishy. The meat is moist and springy. The color has to be clear-looking, with any brown spots in its edge. If a fillet is packed inside a packaging, the package has to be sealed shut and not tampered with.

Hold and shift the shell to the opposite ways. This rule applies for choosing a fresh clam. If the clam shifted, it means that it’s not fresh anymore. Just like fish, shrimps or clams that are peeled, the aroma is not fishy. Sometimes there can be liquid coming out from on top. Just make sure the liquid is not whitish or greenish.

Frozen seafood has to be totally free from ice crystals or freezer burns (a condition where food is damaged because of oxidation and dehydration). The characteristic of food that has been exposed by freezer burns is that the color changes drastically. Check if the packaging is still in good condition and no water is silting because of its storage under the freezer.

Moist, no strong fishy smell and a distinctive color. This is a sign of good cooked seafood. Distinctive color means a color that resembles freshness. For example, a shrimp’s outer layer has to in pinkish-red. For lobsters and crabs, the shell has to bright red. Before buying seafood, make sure that the cooked seafood is not placed beside raw seafood. Also check the expired date and the packing date.