How to identify that an fish maw is Fake?

Today we are faced with a large competitive market in quality, but also one of unscrupulous people and companies that try to sell fake products and that many times manage to do, and that, damages the market globally. Consequently, we wanted to write some tips that will help everyone to know which is good or not.The Fish maw is common that is fake due to limited supply.

Unethical business use seafood such as squid, shark's skin or head portion of fin soaked in hydrogen peroxide and sulphur followed by heat process to produce the imitations.  Also, it is common for substandard product to be disguised as top grade product. Unethical business collect substandard, low value and broken fish maw and pour them into a special mold, gradually increase the thickness of the layers and add pressure. The finished product will get similar thickness of real fish maw. There have been cases of using pig’s skin and chemical plastic to imitate fish maw although uncommon.

Look out for the following when making fish maw purchase:

- Colour :  Real fish maw has golden yellow colour whereas fake fish maw has light and whitish yellow unnatural colour.

- Grain :  Real fish maw has natural grain whereas fake fish maw does not have obvious and orderly grain. 

- Smell :  Real fish maw has light sea water smell whereas fake fish maw has none and may carry chemical or plastic smell.

It is therefore strongly advised to buy fish maw from reputable shops.