Beluga Caviar

Beluga caviar comes from the rarest of the caviar producing sturgeon - the Beluga sturgeon (Latin name: Huso huso) is the largest of the sturgeons and inhabits the Caspian, Black and Adriatic seas.

Because of its rarity and the fact that its large egg size makes them more fragile and hence more prone to damage during processing, Beluga caviar is the most expensive caviar available. The eggs are greyish in colour and are most often described as "buttery" in taste.

Beluga Sturgeon are now very rare, the population of the Beluga sturgeon suffered a major decline through the twentieth century. The poaching bonanza of the last decade served the coup de grace to the wild species. Virtually all the remaining Beluga still to be found in the Caspian area were probably releases from hatcheries rather than wild stock. In recent years the few hatcheries trying to maintain a population were even finding it hard to acquire sufficient male sturgeons to provide the milt in order to fertilise those eggs they had.

The US is on the verge of banning all trade in beluga products- we will report on this as soon as it happens.

Editor's recommendation is to hold back on buying any beluga, until stocks recover in the Caspian. At present, consider buying some farmed caviar such as is now available from French or American sturgeon farms- the quality is comparable.