Which fish is better, fresh or frozen? Let’s look at wild Alaskan salmon.

You might be wondering, what are we even discussing here? Of course, fresh fish is better! Well, there is one important detail. Fresh, meaning new, or in the seafood world, shortly after catch, is the most desired characteristic of any fish, including wild-caught salmon.

However, many people believe that “fresh” means never frozen before, and that’s what this discussion is about.

Is it better to never freeze your fish or to keep it frozen?

Frozen salmon is perfect for retaining freshness and nutrients, and you don't even have to thaw it to eat it.

Fresh or frozen fish: shelf life and actual freshness

Fish, including wild Alaskan salmon, is a very perishable product that spoils faster than red meat, poultry, or venison. Even with great treatment and under excellent temperature conditions, it goes entirely bad in about 2 weeks. This may sound gross, but once the fish dies on the boat, it’s essentially a decomposing corpse that starts to spoil. Every day, it loses more of its juices, nutrients, texture, flavor, and everything that made it the beautiful, fresh fish it once was, immediately after it came out of the water.

There is only one way to stop this spoiling process – deep-freezing the fish.

If you clean, package (ideally in a vacuum pack), and deep-freeze (also known as “flash-freezing”) wild salmon shortly after it’s caught, the spoilage process stops. All the flavor, texture, and nutrients get locked in, and now, instead of having days to enjoy your fish, you have years!

In other words, properly frozen salmon has more freshness than never-frozen salmon that was caught days before you eat it.

If you live on the coast and can get to your fish very quickly, you can eat it never-frozen, before the spoilage process gets too far. But if you’re landlocked or live in a seafood desert, frozen salmon will deliver better freshness than “fresh” salmon that was never frozen. 

The key is to have the fish processed and frozen as quickly after catch as possible. This is one of the reasons Copper River salmon is so spectacular. The short and limited fishing season allows the wild Copper River sockeye, Copper River king, and Copper River coho to be harvested, handled, and processed quickly and at the peak of freshness.

The temperature in a blast freezer can be as low as -60 degrees Fahrenheit.

Fresh deli case salmon vs frozen salmon delivery

All commercially available wild fish have a season. For wild Alaskan salmon, it’s summer (June-September). That means, if you see Alaskan salmon in a fresh deli case in the store from October through May, it’s either not wild Alaskan salmon or it was previously frozen and then thawed out to be displayed in the case. Yes, that’s right. The “fresh” wild Alaskan fish in the deli case was thawed right before being put on display. 

Does that thawed deli-case fish give you more freshness than the frozen wild salmon you store in your freezer and thaw right before cooking? The answer is a big fat no!

While the fish in a cold deli case might look better than frozen fillets from a wild salmon delivery service, when it comes to freshness, the frozen fillets win.

If you want to include wild Alaskan salmon or other wild Alaskan fish in your diet year-round, a frozen seafood subscription service is your best and freshest option.

Copper River Sockeye salmon vacuum-packed portions are ready to go into a freezer.

Freezing, handling, and parasites

This might sound like all wild Alaskan fish should be frozen before going to you as the consumer, and some companies are now taking that approach. Turns out, even twice-frozen wild salmon can be better than salmon that sits on ice for over a week.

The reason for this is the modern freezing process called flash freezing.

Nowadays, a blast cell freezer or a tunnel freezer can deep-freeze a salmon fillet in under 1-2 hours. The extremely low temperature exposure (as low as -60 degrees Fahrenheit), enhanced by fast blowing air, causes moisture in the fish to crystallize into super fine crystals. That way, the texture and quality are not compromised, and at the same time, the vacuum packaging keeps the moisture locked in, with all nutrients, color, flavor, texture, and freshness. Think of it like an IVF embryo - and those turn into humans! This process keeps wild-caught fish fresh and ready for you to eat when you choose.

Plus, there is another benefit to flash-frozen wild seafood – it kills parasites and makes your wild Alaskan seafood sushi-grade, sashimi-grade, and safe to eat during pregnancy.

You may have seen the viral “parasites in Costco salmon” floating around the internet, and they are purely sensational and creating unnecessary worry. Parasites, mostly worms, are a normal part of the seafood world, and you can find them in almost any wild fish. This is because it’s impossible to treat wild fish with antibiotics (like they do farmed fish) to kill the parasites.

The key is to kill the parasites before they reach your plate, and that’s exactly what flash freezing (or deep freezing) does. It can give us the “ick” to think about, but we are simply disconnected from our food sources; this is what wild food is like. Think of it as extra protein!

The winner? Flash frozen and vacuum-packed

If you live in Alaska, there is nothing better than catching a salmon straight out of pristine waters and eating it for dinner on the same day. However, if you live elsewhere in the US and want the same quality, your best option is to find a reputable source of flash-frozen, individually vacuum-packed portions of wild Alaskan salmon.

And in case you still have doubts, you can order some and try it for yourself.

Copper River Sockeye Salmon (6oz portions)

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