Why Canned Salmon Got Soft Bones

Canned Salmon is a nutritious food, especially for protein and calcium. You can eat it right out of the tin. The fish bones are very soft and tender that they can hardly be noticed. It is a good source of easily digested and absorbed Calcium. But what made them so soft? Is it really safe to eat? because fresh Salmon bones look nothing like it!

Popular Beliefs

Many people believe that Salmons have soft bones already and nothing is done to make it any softer. Some others say that chemicals are added to the can along with fish to make it happen. This makes sense because not just Salmon, most canned fish(Mackerel, Tuna, etc..) have much tender bones than their fresh counterparts. So they ask; is it really safe to eat?

The Canning Process

Anyway, The true secret seems lie in the way the fish canning is done.In the canning process, fish passes through 2 main stages; pre-treatment stage and retorting stage.

During pre-treatment, Fish is put in the can and heated with steam at 100⁰ Celsius for a few hours. Then, brine, oils and other additives are added into the can and boiled at a higher temperature for another few hours. The latter process is called retorting.

This heating process is important to destroy microbes in  the fish and fluids so that it is well preserved for a longtime until broke open for consumption. This is why canned fish has a very long shelf life(usually more than 4 years). In contrast, an opened can expires in 3 days even if refrigerated.

The Fish is Cooked Already!

Canned fish Spine

The canning process affects the fish in other ways too. Heating destroys some of the Vitamins and oils, Meat becomes softer and importantly, bone is softened as well.

Apparently, this heating and boiling is the reason for tender bones. On the other hand, there is no evidence of adding chemicals to achieve this. Hopefully, in this aspect we can come
to the conclusion that canned Salmon (canned Fish) are safe for consumption. (Neglecting the fact that marine fishes accumulate heavy metals in them)

References

Does canned fish (salmon or tuna) have any sort of nutritional benefit when compared to fresh fish?