Snails are still thought of as unusual pets. However, many people all over the world see them as food...
- Product Name: Canned meat of Achatina fulica
- Product Size: 284g
- Materials: Giant African land snail
- Color: Black
- Packing:
- Minimum Order: 5
- Price:
- Description: Canned meat of Achatina fulica
- Specification: 156 grams of Drained Weight in a can, 32-46 pieces per can.
This is a real advert for A.fulica escargot.
In many countries, Achatina fulica and many other snail species are seen as a food source. The farming of snails for their meat is called heliculture. They are nutritious, high in calcium and (apparently!) taste nice. Well, I’m a vegetarian so I’ll take their word for it!
All sorts of snails have been eaten since prehistoric times. Roasted snail shells have been found in archaeological excavations. In ancient Rome, there were gardens where snails were fattened up before being eaten. Edible snails also played a role in folk medicine, and recent study has shown that glandular substances from the edible snails cause agglutination of certain bacteria, and therefore could be of value against whooping cough and some other diseases.
The United States imports $200 million worth of snails annually, primarily from Taiwan and France. Many of the canned snails shipped from France are snails that were imported to France from Turkey and Eastern Europe and packed or relabelled. France presently imports a major portion of the snails the French consume, since snails of edible size are scarce in France due to over harvesting and due to the increasing use of agricultural chemicals.
There are thousands of varieties of land snails, ranging in size from very tiny ones about one millimetre long to the Giant African Land Snail which occasionally grows up to a foot long. "Escargot" most commonly refers to either Helix aspersa (the common garden snail), Helix aspersa maxima or to Helix pomatia (the Roman snail). A.fulica and Achatina marginata are sliced and canned and passed off on some consumers as escargot.
Nutritional values for snails may vary slightly, but snails have about 300 calories per pound of meat, are about .5% to .8% fat, 1.5% minerals, 84% water and about 12% to 16% protein. 9 of the 10 amino acids needed by humans are in snail protein.
Canned snails are washed, steamed, shelled, and then washed in a vinegar and water solution before being canned. Producing a quality-canned product is somewhat tricky.