Utsunomiya Strawberry Salmon to Become City’s Next Specialty Product; Meant to Demonstrate Local Tap Water Quality

By Hiroki Okuyama / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer

16:00 JST, July 28, 2024

UTSUNOMIYA — A variety of rainbow trout, called yashio masu, may become a new specialty product of Utsunomiya, as the city government experiments with breeding fish fed with strawberries.

The city government’s sewerage bureau utilizes water from its purification plant that has not been purified to try to breed yashio masu, giving them food that contains strawberries.

Utsunomiya Strawberry Salmon is what it will be branded as, because trout are a breed of salmon. The city government aims to demonstrate the high quality of its tap water and raise the name recognition of yashio masu together with the local strawberries.

The city government plans to begin selling the fish in November at the earliest.

Yashio masu are a variety of large rainbow trout created by the Tochigi Prefectural Fisheries Experiment Station through selective breeding.

Because the fish do not spawn, the quality of their meat is consistent, with good fat distribution.

The sewerage bureau breeds the fish in the Shirasawa Water Purification Plant in the city.

Bureau officials received instructions from the fisheries experiment station about breeding and used a pond to monitor changes in the quality of the area’s underground water.

Officials have bred 100 yashio masu since the middle of January.

According to the sewerage bureau, the underground water temperature there is around 15 C throughout the year which is good for the trout. Officials have said that these conditions are expected to accelerate the growth of the fish.

Rainbow trout usually need about two years to grow to two or three kilograms in weight, which is an appropriate size for shipping. Yashio masu, weighing 200 grams at the time of their release into the pond, have grown to more than one kilogram in weight after only about half a year.

Additionally, officials have soaked premade feed pellets in liquefied strawberries. The feed pellets are then dried and then given to the fish.

The strawberries used are provided free of charge by farmers in the area around the water purification plant. They provide Sky Berry brand fruit which did not meet standards for selling.

Sewerage bureau officials have not had a chance to taste the fish, so it is unknown what impact the strawberries have on the flavor of the fish. But they expect that the vitamin C and polyphenol contained in strawberries may help the fish grow healthy.

The original intention behind breeding the trout was to “demonstrate the high quality of the city’s tasty tap water.”

Before that, the bureau had implemented various demonstrations for the same purpose, such as selling tap water in plastic bottles and producing video clips to demonstrate the high water quality.

The breeding of yashio masu was planned as one of such demonstrations. Then, the officials devised a plan to make yashio masu into the city’s new specialty product.

With the combination of fish with strawberries, which are already famous local specialties, the officials aim to capitalize on the brand value of yashio masu to the fullest.

The officials plan to sell some fish starting in November and hold a tasting event, inviting people in luxury restaurants, high-end ryotei Japanese restaurants, hotels and other establishments to try it.

The officials will continue breeding the remaining fish and plan to ship them in spring next year when they have grown to around three kilograms.

If the fish meets with rave reviews, the bureau will consider expanding the breeding project.

An official of the bureau said, “We hope that making the salmon into an Utsunomiya specialty will help people to understand how safe and tasty the tap water they use here is.”