How to Choose the Essential “Shrimp” for New Year’s Dishes: Let the Experts Teach You!

Many traditional New Year’s dishes will definitely include “shrimp,” but many people don’t know how to tell if shrimp is fresh. In various reports, you may also have heard of unscrupulous vendors adding certain chemicals or antibiotics to make the shrimp look “super lively.” However, eating shrimp treated with these additives can easily lead to allergies. Let the experts teach you how to choose shrimp so you can enjoy fresh and delicious ones.

When buying shrimp at the market, you’ll often notice that their colors vary from light to dark. But black shrimp aren’t necessarily stale. According to the Fisheries Agency under the Council of Agriculture, shrimp turn black due to the formation of melanin caused by enzymes in their bodies, which is not directly related to freshness. The main reason is that shrimp heads, shells, bodily fluids, and blood contain highly active tyrosinase, which breaks down tyrosine and then undergoes non-enzymatic oxidation and recombination to form black pigments, causing the shrimp to darken. Therefore, even if shrimp appear black, it only affects their appearance and has nothing to do with freshness.

Experts teach you how to choose delicious shrimp. (Photo/shutterstock)

As for how to pick fresh shrimp, the Fisheries Agency says that fresh shrimp have a bright sheen, give off no foul or unusual odors, and turn bright red when cooked. Their flesh is firm and flavorful. To test freshness, break the shrimp apart at the junction of the head and back, then smell it immediately — if there’s no bad odor, it means it’s very fresh. On the other hand, if the shrimp head is already detached from the body when you buy it, the shrimp feels too soft to the touch, or the shell shows no elasticity when lightly pressed, these are signs of staleness and it’s not recommended to purchase.