Status: 25.08.2023, 18:30 p.m.
By: Clara Kistner
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If you want it to be quick and still taste good, fish fingers are not the worst choice. Nevertheless, harmful substances that are hazardous to health must be avoided.
Whether in combination with a light potato salad, French fries or mashed potatoes and spinach - fish fingers, similar to chicken nuggets, are not only popular with most children. They combine the healthy nutritional values found in fish meat, such as valuable omega-3 fatty acids, with a crunchy dough breading that can delight even the pickiest eaters. In the Ökotest (September 2023 magazine), most fish fingers were unfortunately less convincing, with fat pollutants suspected of being carcinogenic in the breading.
Ökotest: Fat pollutants suspected of being carcinogenic found in fish fingers
With the golden-brown sticks from the freezer, not much can be seen of the original fish. Already frozen on the ship, the fish blocks are cut into the classic, bite-sized stick shape during further processing, breaded, deep-fried and finally flash-frozen again. For example, you usually take the fish fingers out of their packaging at home already pre-fried.
Even though it was convincing in its taste, the crispy breading of most fish fingers often contains substances that are hazardous to health. (Symbolic image) © Westend61/Imago
During the short frying in the factory, pollutants are often formed, which are mainly produced when the vegetable frying fats are heated. These fatty pollutants (3-MCPD fatty acid esters and glycidyl fatty acid esters), which were detected in elevated amounts in 11 out of 19 products tested, are almost completely converted to glycidol in the gastrointestinal tract.
Buying the right fish fingers for the sake of the environment
If you go shopping sustainably and still don't want to do without the fishy finger food, you should study the packaging of the fish fingers more closely the next time you go shopping. Here you will find various data, such as fishing area, sub-fishing area and fishing gear of the processed fish, which, according to Oekotest.de, make a big difference for the oceans, the environment and fish stocks.
According to the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), glycidol has been shown to be carcinogenic and mutagenic in animal experiments and, according to further animal experiments by the International Agency for Research on Cancer, leads to kidney damage. The maximum daily dose for 3-MCPD set by EFSA would already be more than half exhausted in a 30-kilogram child with five contaminated fish fingers of the products criticized by Ökotest.
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Ökotest examines fish fingers: Four brands fail, six test winners with "good"
- Eismann fish fingers: "inadequate"
- Golden Seafood fish fingers: "poor"
- Followfood 10 cod fish fingers: "poor"
- Alnatura fish fingers made from pollock fillet: "poor"
Six products were rated "good" by Ökotest, including fish fingers from Frosta, Iglo, Denn's Biomarkt, Lidl, Netto and Demeter.
How healthy are fish fingers really?
In terms of taste, all tested fish fingers seem to be convincing and without exception score "very good" in the tasting. But in addition to the valuable omega-3 fatty acids EPA and DHA contained in the fish part, they contain other less healthy fats due to the fried dough breading, which makes up a third of the stick in total.
All in all, fish fingers are simply too fatty to pass as a healthy food. If you also prepare them with oil or butter in a pan instead of turning on the oven, you are doing your liver no favors.