The Directorate of Veterinary Medicine in Cairo issued a warning to citizens against food associated with the Sham al-Nessim holiday, including salted fish “Al-Fasikh”. To eat fesikh in Sham El-Nessim without any health harm to those who eat it.
Ways to identify a corrupt fesikh
The Directorate of Veterinary Medicine in Cairo, in the report issued and circulated by local newspapers, indicated signs for identifying spoiled fesikh, as the director of the Helwan Veterinary Administration affiliated to the Cairo Directorate, Dr. Shenouda Shehata, indicated that it is possible to identify corrupt fesikh through these signs:
- The fat of the fish is yellow or yellow-brown
- The entrails are gelatinous, incoherent, and smell pungent
- The eye is sunken and covered with a little stickiness, and the lens of the eye is very cloudy
- The skin is wrinkled, loses its natural color, loses its luster, is slimy and sticky, and has a rancid odor under the skin, which is pale and not bright.
- The gills have mucus that is white, gray, yellowish or greenish in color and has an unpleasant odor
- By making a longitudinal section in the muscles, you will find that the meat is soft to the touch, has an unpleasant smell, and its shape is incoherent, and its bones are soft, sticky, and have a red or bluish-red color.
The right ways to eat fesikh
Dr. Shehata Shenouda Shehata confirmed that there are ways to eat fesikh in the right ways, as follows:
- Place the fesikh after purchasing it in the refrigerator to reach a 48-hour freezing point
- Good cleaning by cutting off the head and tail, then removing the guts in a good way, then cleaning it
- Feseekh is soaked in clean water with lemon until its salinity decreases
- It can be deep fried in hot oil
- It is better to eat it with onions, lemons, bananas, oranges and cantaloupes, “rich in potassium.”
Important alerts
The Directorate of Veterinary Medicine in Cairo clarified that it is not possible to put Al-Fasikh for sale before a month has passed since it has been salted, pointing out that the items that are used in salting are mullet fish, and it clarified some important steps for its salting, which are as follows:
- Mullet is one of the best fish without any bacteria
- Mullet fish is prepared by drying and fermenting by salting
- After washing the mullet fish well with water and lemon for a while, then leave it to dry away from sunlight, insects and flies
- Use coarse salt to prevent growth and breeding of harmful bacteria inside the fish for 3 weeks, until it is ready to eat