Lots of protein, little fat and delicious: shrimp are popular. The demand can no longer be met just by catching in the wild. The crustaceans are also farmed. Stiftung Warentest has examined what both types are good for.
Whether grilled, fried or even raw, shrimp have long since evolved from a luxury item to an affordable discounter item. This was made possible not least by breeding in so-called aquacultures. Accordingly, the Europeans reach. Every person in the EU eats an average of 1.5 kilograms of shrimp per year. In Germany they are the fifth best-selling fish and seafood. 100 grams are often available for less than 2 euros.
The good news right at the beginning: the consumption of shrimp usually does not endanger your health. At least if they are not overly enjoyed. This was the finding of a study of 18 frozen, peeled aquatic products. 10 with raw warm water prawns, 5 with cooked warm water prawns, 3 with boiled cold water prawns. The prices per 100 grams range from 1.47 to 4.65 euros. It doesn’t matter whether the animals are bred or wild-caught and whether they’re big or small. Neither drug residues nor pathogens or heavy metals were found in worrying quantities during an investigation by Stiftung Warentest.
And not bad either: 11 of the tested products scored “good” – three times there was a “sufficient”. These include private labels from discounters and supermarkets as well as organic products from Biopolar, Rewe and Alnatura.
With so much good news, however, it should not be missing to point out that the intensive breeding that is often practiced is damaging the ecosystem of the oceans. For the necessary breeding ponds often have to give way to mangrove forests. But it also affects the people who have been fishing or growing rice in the affected areas for generations. Gourmets should therefore pay attention to a sustainability seal on the shrimp packaging, such as: “EU Bio”, “Naturland” or “ASC” or “MSC”, which 17 of the tested goods carry.
The raw Rewe “Bio Black Tiger” shrimp (2.78 euros per 100 grams, grade 2.1) are doubly convincing: They perform “good” in the product test – and bear the Naturland seal. Also recommended: the raw prawns from Biopolar (4.65 euros, 1.8) with the EU organic seal and cooked warm prawns from Costa (4 euros, 1.8) and Bofrost (4.35 euros, 2.0) – both with ASC -Seal. The best wild-caught cold-water prawns come from Eismann (3.10 euros, 1.8) and Lidl Ocean Sea (1.63 euros, 1.8). However, the study also shows that reliable seals do not guarantee good quality.
For example, for products rated “sufficient”. The shrimp from Escal and the two Edeka brands Gut
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