Rewatch the November 29 Webinar: The Secrets of the Faroe Islands' Hiddenfjord Salmon.

The second online event of Conkilia was held on November 29th, aimed at strengthening and strengthening the community between international fish producers and restaurateurs.

The central theme of the second webinar was salmon: a fish that has been widely used raw in recent years, but few people know all its different facets and processing methods.

Our guest on the second webinar was our friend and Hiddenfjord marketing manager Luca Moretti, originally Italian but now Danish by adoption. He gave us a much deeper understanding not only of the company, but also of the Faroe Islands themselves, salmon farming, the various processes, and environmental sustainability, a key aspect for Conkilia itself.

The Hiddenfjord Company

The company was founded in 1887, and after 124 years, it is still tied to the Gregensen family. While most salmon farms are intensive, Hiddenfjord is a family-run farm that strives for quality through technological innovation and sustainable practices.

It's nice to highlight the family-run approach because the company's decisions aren't just driven by profit, but are also committed to respecting the society and environment of the Faroe Islands, a small community of approximately 50,000 inhabitants. This translates into the company's commitment to sustainable practices for a community that relies on fish exports for nearly 90% of the island's total revenue.

Continuous research into the sustainability of livestock farming has resulted in the development of new technologies and practices to become increasingly green and to benefit the entire sector from the projects Hiddenfjord has implemented.

As evidence of what has been said, the phrase that the owner Atli Gregensen usually repeats can be emblematic:

"Our core value is sustainability. Staying true to our commitment to creating an exceptional quality product for our customers without harming the environment. Rather, creating an environmentally sustainable product to feed the world."

 Our salmon is GLOBALG.AP certified. This is the global quality assurance standard for good agricultural practices, covering criteria for the environment and ecology, animal welfare, food safety, and employee health and safety. The standard serves as a credible third-party verification that our business operations are sustainable and safe and that the salmon is farmed responsibly under environmentally sound conditions.

 GLOBALG.AP covers the entire production chain, from feed producer to hatchery, nursery, and farm, including transportation, harvesting, and post-harvest activities.

 Hiddenfjord's GLOBAL GAP certificate is number (GGN) 4063061339980

Respect for the environment is very important to Conkilia: Antonio Vasile, Conkilia product technician, explains that most of the products on the platform have sustainability certifications.

The Faroe Islands, Hiddenfjord, and the Choice of Sustainable Salmon

To delve deeper into Hiddenfjord society, however, we need to identify the characteristics of the Faroe Islands .

The Faroe Islands are located southeast of Iceland and north of the United Kingdom, and is an area where strong winds and natural and climatic aspects make it a place as beautiful to visit as it is difficult to live in on a daily basis.

The Faroe Islands, together with Greenland, are part of Denmark, a nation that enjoys great importance among the Northern European nations.

In the 18 islands that make up the archipelago there are essentially three fish producers, including Hiddenfjord itself.

But how is Hiddenfjord sustainable?

Looking at the Faroe Islands in detail, it's worth noting that the five Hiddenfjord sites are located along the western edge of the archipelago. These five sites are periodically rotated using mobile stations, ensuring a natural recirculation of the waters and marine flora and fauna.

Hidden Fjord Salmon Farming in the Faroe Islands

The Faroe Islands, explains Luca Moretti, represent the ideal habitat for salmon farming. This is because the archipelago, with its average annual temperature between 7° and 10°C (44°F and 50°F), not particularly extreme, offers the best conditions for the fish's survival; the minimal temperature fluctuations, which means the salmon are stress-free, translate into high-quality fish meat.

The waters in the plants are treated with a sophisticated X-ray recirculation system, which eliminates impurities. The cages in the sea are then slowly brought ashore, so as not to stress the animals, at one of the five sites that rotate periodically. These sites also include mobile fishing stations. These are positioned so that the salmon will swim into them, and are processed immediately, resulting in a firm flesh, which is what chefs seek for their dishes. The speed with which the salmon enter the mobile station, thus limiting stress, is therefore the key to the quality that the restaurateur, and therefore the end customer, will experience in the product.

In fact, immediately after being cleaned, the salmon reaches the packing stations in less than 3 hours.

The Hiddenfjord farm, which we repeat is family-run, is therefore very different from traditional intensive farms.

One of Hiddenfjord's green choices is its export methods. It was the first company to eliminate air freight, preferring only sea freight, thus reducing carbon dioxide and harmful gas emissions during product shipments.

European transport, and therefore the transport of Conkilia, follows the same logic: the frozen product can travel, in larger quantities than by air, by ship, limiting costs and respecting the environment more.

Hiddenfjord and the care of smolt salmons, the young salmon.

Hiddenfjord takes great care of its young salmon, called smolt, .

 After 10-16 months in freshwater tanks, young salmon are ready to be released into the sea.
 
Before being released into the sea, the baby salmon are fed—we repeat, without antibiotics, hormones, or GMOs—in facilities that allow them to reach the right weight.

This factor is important because, once released into the water, the salmon will be strong and able to defend itself independently without the need for chemical supplements.

This is particularly important for quality as well: although the difference may be imperceptible initially, the meat of a Smolt that has reached a certain size will naturally be better than its smaller counterpart, "helped" in its growth by exogenous factors.

Almost two years have passed since the Smolt was released into the water, and while one might consider the cost of this choice, which increases the specific cost of each salmon, it's understandable when considering the sites where the salmon will later be released. Although it's a farm, the Hiddenfjord logo features a distinctive phrase: Raised in the wild; raised, yes, but in a wild environment, there's a need for strong, self-sufficient salmon, free of GMOs and hormones that would hinder their future survival in these waters.

How did Conkilia's relationship with Hiddenfjord begin?

The importance of this relationship was clearly explained by technician Antonio Vasile: the water currents and therefore the continuous water changes, as well as the possibility of swimming against the current, allow the salmon to grow in the healthiest way possible, aspects that will be found in the quality of Faroe Islands salmon, which is therefore different from the salmon most commonly found on the market.

The high quality of the meat is not only due to the water currents, but also to the absence of GMOs, antibiotics, and hormones. While these feeds are necessary for purely economic reasons, the relationship between the environment and good feed is fundamental to producing excellent salmon.

Is fresh salmon or frozen salmon better?

More often than not, chefs and restaurateurs debate the choice of salmon, and in particular whether it's better to choose fresh or frozen salmon.

Hiddenfjord freezes salmon within three hours of being caught, and fish from Northern Europe generally takes about a week to reach Italy. The question industry professionals should therefore ask themselves is: is it better to have a fresh product that's seven days old, or a frozen product that's processed within hours of being caught?

The most correct answer seems to be the second one. But let's explain the reasons.

Today, salmon is mainly used raw, for sushi and sashimi , and European law requires that the product, to be used raw, must first be frozen.

Unlike products like tuna, snapper, and sea bream, which require aging and therefore a few days' wait ensure their quality is perfect for the market, salmon is best frozen, as it must reach market with firm, plump flesh and the consistency suitable for raw dishes.

What is rigor mortis in fishing? Why is it so important?

Rigor mortis, the Latin term indicating the rigidity of death, is a determining factor in choosing a salmon.

Stiffness, of course, is an aspect that gradually changes over time thanks to elements such as oxygen and enzymes.

Rigor mortis, which can be calculated using the formula shown in the image, can be crucial information for chefs.

The Faroe Islands Salmon on the Conkilia portal is a Pre Rigor Mortis salmon, that is, a salmon that has been frozen before the process through which the tail gradually loosens.

This choice results in firm, consistent meat, but Pin Bon In, that is, the fillet still has bones because it is not possible, due to the state of the salmon, to remove them completely.

But while on the one hand the presence of the bones could be a nuisance for restaurateurs and sushimen who have to remove them manually, on the other hand the consistency and rigidity lead to a product quality similar to freshly caught fish.

As fish ages, the bones and all the connections loosen: therefore, Antonio Vasile explains, the ease with which it is possible to clean the fish could be a symptom of the freshness of the fish we are about to consume.

Hiddenfjord, and therefore Conkilia, have opted to sell a TRIM B salmon. But what does this mean specifically?

What is Trim and how does it determine salmon price and yield?

Generally speaking, Trim represents the processing the fish undergoes: the higher we go, the less processing it undergoes, while the lower we go, the cleaner it will be. For more information, let's take a closer look at the different Trims using the following image.

Trim B pin bon in is a cut in which, after machine filleting, minimal intervention is done to the fillet to preserve the freshness of the product: Pin Bon In is, in fact, a fillet with internal bones still in the shoulder, precisely because they cannot be removed due to the turgidity and freshness of freshly caught salmon. While this may be a negative factor for chefs and restaurateurs who therefore prefer cleaner Trim D and Trim E , Trim B allows for an excellent product for the preparation of sushi and sashimi.

To simplify, we can say, for example, that on average, a whole salmon that has been gutted and gilled still has a waste content of 30-35%. In economic terms, this means that if we paid €10/kg for a whole salmon and wanted to obtain a Trim E, we would get a salmon fillet costing €15.50/kg.

Conkilia's support

Conkilia is a portal that offers products from around the world, uniting producers, chefs, restaurateurs, and seafood professionals in a community for greater access to information. The platform showcases products through web pages, articles, consultations, and webinars.

All this to reflect the needs of new professionals, who want to know the origins of the product, so they can pass on this new experience acquired to their customers.