Tinned/canned herring - strange feature?

Sorry if this isn't the right place to post but this forum seems to have answers to everything. I recently opened a tin of herring and found a grainy substance or tiny beads in the tail end of one of the fish. Could this be fish eggs? Some kind of parasite? Any suggestions?

Can anyone help Paul with this?

I can't really tell from the photo, but struvite crystals are a common problem in canned tuna, although I have never come across them in herring.

They are natural minerals present in the fish which seem to develop into crystals as part of the canning process. They are often mistaken as glass shards, but if you crush them they go into a powder.

Sorry if this isn't the right place to post but this forum seems to have answers to everything. I recently opened a tin of herring and found a grainy substance or tiny beads in the tail end of one of the fish. Could this be fish eggs? Some kind of parasite? Any suggestions?

I'm not a fish expert at all-but if you look at the photo at 100% they look a lot like herring eggs to me(pic attached)

regards
Mike

Hi Foodworker,
Thanks, but I'm pretty certain that's not it. The structures were all similar spheres of about 1 mm. They certainly didn't look like flaky crystals that you would expect from struvite.
Thanks, though.
Anyone else got an idea?

Hi Mike,
Yes, they do look like the eggs in your picture. It certainly seems like the logical answer. I was very surprised by how full the fish was of them and by how close they came to the surface of the fish - right up to the skin. That's what made me think they might be pathogenic rather than physiological.
Well, I've thrown that tin away by now but I'll probably not worry too much next time.
Thanks everyone,
Paul

Hi Mike,
Yes, they do look like the eggs in your picture. It certainly seems like the logical answer. I was very surprised by how full the fish was of them and by how close they came to the surface of the fish - right up to the skin. That's what made me think they might be pathogenic rather than physiological.
Well, I've thrown that tin away by now but I'll probably not worry too much next time.
Thanks everyone,
Paul

Apparently in Japan you can buy dried herring with the eggs left in- abit of a delicacy by all accounts!

i think i have also seen kelp with herring eggs attached (on a menu somewhere in the dim and distant past)

I also came across a link or two to botulism in uneviscerated fish-so if the wern't there deliberately it was probably wise to bin it!

Regards

mike

Did you eat it?

It was a couple of days till I got a reply so I'd already binned it. But I did see something very similar in a tin of herring (not smoked) last week. Far fewer, though - maybe 100 beads in only one part of one fish. I ate the rest of the tin but left that part. I'm pretty sure it's nothing sinister...

Dear Paul,

It's probably organic herring.

Maybe try a different fish, eg tuna.? I've never seen any beads in that. Waste not, want not.

Rgds / Charles.C

Look like eggs to me.

This has made me think; sometimes consumers' imaginations run riot when they see an intrinsic foreign body which is a regular occurrance in nature or due to the processing which can play havoc with your complaints figures. My immediate thoughts are calcium lactate crystals on cheeses (particularly mature hard cheeses) and consumers thinking it's mould, ditto with moulding starch on gelled sweets (you get a white blob on the side).

Look like eggs to me.

This has made me think; sometimes consumers' imaginations run riot when they see an intrinsic foreign body which is a regular occurrance in nature or due to the processing which can play havoc with your complaints figures. My immediate thoughts are calcium lactate crystals on cheeses (particularly mature hard cheeses) and consumers thinking it's mould, ditto with moulding starch on gelled sweets (you get a white blob on the side).

Does chocolate go white if you store it in the fridge too long?