Mold in Bear & Wolf canned wild salmon from Trident?

Some of the ingredients for canned-fish salad.

Editor's note: Today, I report on how I turned green when I opened a can of wild salmon. I also describe a shopping trip to Trader Joe's and Fairway Market, both in Paramus. At the latter, I saw another shopper put roasted coffee beans to his nose.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

I took out two cans of wild Alaskan salmon, a can of yellow-fin tuna and another of Moroccan sardines to make fish salad with chopped red onion, mayo, Dijon mustard and cumin.

Of the canned fish, the salmon went in last, but when I upended the second can and dumped it into a bowl, I noticed what looked like mold covering the bottom of the salmon.

I thought at first it might be skin, but the salmon was skinless and boneless. I tried to remove the part covered by mold and continue making the salad, but eventually dumped everything in the garbage.

The Bear & Wolf Pink Salmon was from Costco Wholesale, but I have been buying it for more than a year and have never encountered such a problem before. I could not see any damage on the can.

Today, I looked at the Web site of Trident Seafoods Corp. of Seattle. Wash., maker of the canned salmon and other seafood products sold at Costco. The FAQs for canned salmon don't address mold.

The site says salmon are usually canned in the summer and have a shelf life of six years.

The cans contain wild-caught Pacific salmon from Alaska with no mercury. I sent an e-mail explaining what happened, and I'm awaiting a response.

Update

Click on the following link for Trident's response:

Result of mold complaint 

The Nose

I had lunch with a friend at the Suburban Diner on Route 17 north in Paramus and then continued north to Trader Joe's and Fairway Market to pick up a few things.

Fairway was selling its extra-virgin olive oil -- a blend from Spain, Greece and Italy -- for $4.99 a liter, with a limit of two. I believe the regular price is $8.99.

I also stopped at the butcher's counter for beef oxtails, hoping to improve on the ones we got from Costco that were mostly fat and bone. 

Fairway's oxtails looked better and were $6.29 a pound, compared to $4.49 a pound at Costco.

I picked up a small wedge of Spanish Fig Cake with Almonds ($9.99 a pound), an item I haven't seen elsewhere, and a pound of Brazilian Dark Roast coffee beans, Turkish grind (on sale for $6.99 a pound).

I almost didn't buy the Brazilian coffee after seeing a man grab some of the store-roasted beans and put them to his nose, then throw them back. He did the same with beans from another bag, but used a metal scoop the second time.

I guess this shopper doesn't know the real aroma is when the beans are ground. I don't think you can tell much by sniffing the beans.

"Sir," I said, "you really shouldn't have put your hands in the beans and put them up to your nose."

He agreed, saying he realized that, though too late, and that's why he used the scoop for his second sniff test. Little comfort. 

Jazz apples

At Trader Joe's, I bought two packages each of uncured, preservative-free bacon and uncured beef hot dogs, both from animals raised without antibiotics ($3.99 and $4.29 each, respectively).

A 64-ounce bottle of Organic Lemonade (18% juice) was $2.99 and a 32-ounce container of Organic Plain Low Fat Yogurt also was $2.99.

A 3-pound bag of small, crisp Jazz apples was $3.49 or $1.16 a pound.