Designation of glow fried fish

Designation of fish treatment

The Finnish Food Authority has been asked when fish or part of it, such as fish fillets, may be designated as glow fried. In glow frying, the flame touches and cooks the fish while acting as the actual source of heat.

The Finnish Food Authority has generally provided guidance on the designation of food in the Food Information Guide for Food Supervisors and Food Business Operators (Finnish Food Authority Guide 17068/2)(in Finnish).

The Finnish Food Authority provides guidance on the designation of fish or part of it, such as fish associated with the treatment of fillets below. Food law does not provide for this separately. Before drawing up the guidelines, the Finnish Food Authority consulted representatives of the fish industry on the matter.

Table: Designation related to the treatment of fish or part of it, such as fillets

Treatment	Definitions	Designation
Glow frying	The fish is glow fried by a flame of a wood fire. The fish cooks close to the fire and the flame of the wood fire is the source the heat. The flame touches the product from time to time.	"Traditionally glow fried with wood" or "Traditionally glow fried" or similar expression.
	The fish cooks mainly close to the fire and the flame of the fire is the source the heat. The flame touches the product from time to time. The source of heat may be wood or a gas flame or the flame from some other source of fire.	"Glow fried" or "Glow" or other similar expression
	The fish is cooked in the oven (e.g. a normal oven or smoke oven without smoke) or in a grill or on a grill line (heated with electrical resistors). The surface of the fish is then treated with a flame of fire, such as liquefied gas in glow frying or on a line where the flames of the fire touch the fish to leave a trace of "glow frying" on the product. In this case, the product has already been cooked or almost cooked before the final treatment. The product looks as though it has been glow fried.	”Surface glow fried” or other similar expression.
Flambéing	The fish is subjected to flame, i.e. flambéed, or the food is briefly set alight with alcohol, for example. In this case, the fish may be raw or cooked	“Flambéed” or other similar expression.
Char grilling	Fish generally cooks by electricity, over hot embers or by grilling. Since a whole fish is often involved, the cooking time is usually longer than for glow fried fish. As the fish cooks, the skin "chars", which makes the fish look like char grilled fish and also produces its own recognisable aroma. The Finnish term (hiillostettu) for char grilled fish derives from the Swedish word "halstra", which means cooking over embers in a gridiron	“Char grilled” or "Char" or other similar expression.
Smoking	The food has gone through a smoking process with smoke made from wood (real wood).	“Traditionally smoked with wood” or “Traditionally smoked” or other similar expression.
	The food has gone through a smoking process with smoke made from smoke aromas (liquid smoke). The list of ingredients of a food shall indicate that smoke flavourings have been used.	“Smoked” or “Smoke” or or other similar expression.
	Foods to which smoke flavourings have been added solely by mixing, spraying, injecting, brushing or other similar methods may not be marketed as smoked. The list of ingredients of the food must indicate that smoke flavourings have been used.	“Smoky” or other similar expression.
	_{"Smoke flavouring" means a preparation obtained from the smoke condensed by a fractionation and purification process to give primary smoke condensates, primary tar fractions and/or smoke flavourings derived from primary products.} _{Flavourings must be labelled as "smoke flavouring(s)" or 'smoke flavouring(s) produced from food(s) or food category or source(s)", e.g. "smoke flavouring produced from beech", if the flavouring component contains flavourings defined as a smoke flavouring and imparts a smoky flavour to the food}_.