The One And Only

It´s one of the most expensive food groceries you can buy! The Beluga caviar – produced by the Albino Sturgeon. The Albino Sturgeon is a very rare and vulnerable species which is almost deserted in the open countryside. They grew up to 1, 10 m and age nearly 30 years old. The older the female Sturgeon, the more expensive the caviar is, because the light-coloured caviar is the most expensive.

The name “Caviar” comes from an old Iranian word that means “cake of joy”. Many years ago poor people were eating caviar, because it was non-perishable and they couldn´t sell it. From the 19^th century on caviar was reserved for the rich people.

The only breeder in Austria lives in Grödig, which is located near Salzburg. Whalter Grüll and his son Patrick run a shop where they sell many different fish specialities. But their most expensive, self-produced product is the Beluga caviar. It costs 15€ per gramme!! 1 kilo costs 65.000€ on the world market and only 12 kilo are produced per year.

The Albino Sturgeon is lacking a gene which produces Melanin. Because of this they are white in appearance. Whalter Grüll started breeding the extremely rare Albino Sturgeon 15 years ago. The sturgeons are prone to illnesses and mustn´t stay very long in the sun. Clean brook water, food that contains protein and no additives are precondition for breeding the extremely rare sturgeon. It lasts 12 years on average till a feminine sturgeon spawns the first time.

The Grülls produce the white gold only if somebody asks for it. If they think that the caviar in one female is ready, they take it and let a vet examine the sturgeon. If she agrees that the caviar is ready, the sturgeon is killed and the caviar is harvested by Whalter and his son. The separate grains should not be joined together and the size has to be ideal.

After harvesting, salting and trimming the caviar is sold. When it´s well cooled, caviar keeps 2 to 3 months.

For more information:

http://www.prosieben.at/tv/galileo/videos/558-die-teuersten-lebensmittel-der-welt-clip (a video which is unfortunately in German :( I´m sorry!)

http://most-expensive.com/caviar-world