Frequently Asked Questions about Snails and Snail Caviar

What is the nutritional content of the egg?

Nutritional value of the snail egg	Per 100 g
Energy	119 Kcal
Fat	1,8 g
Carbohydrates	1,5 g
Protein	24,30 g
Sodium	91 mg
Calcium	17 mg
Iron	1,6 mg
Phosphorus	40,2 mg
Magnesium	10 mg
Vitamin A	140 μg
Vitamin B3	7.10 mg
Vitamin B12	10 μg

The snail and its reproduction

It’s one of the most interesting and complex creatures of the animal kingdom and is an incomplete hermaphroditic animal.

Why incomplete?

The snail has both reproductive organs but cannot fecundate itself. It needs another animal of the same species to be inseminated.

If it has both sex organs when is it female or male?

During the courtship, each animal will decide which role will play in that courtship, but it’s even more interesting when in the same courtship they change their roles giving way to the opportunity that both animals fertilize each other and can lay their eggs. It is believed that this phenomenon is due to the capacity of this gastropod to ensure its survival and perceives which role is in demand at a time in particular. They recognize during the courtship, which role is in demand at that particular time and with this ability, ensure their survival.

What time of the year do they reproduce?

They mate during the night when the temperature is warm, and the humidity of the environment is high, the typical weather of Mediterranean spring. For this to occur in nature, the snail must be approximately 8 months old. In the snail farm, the time it takes to reach sexual maturity is briefly shortened due to the type of feeding and care it receives.

How is the courtship?

They begin the courtship by performing a dance where they curl their heads and rub them against the tentacles, their organs of feeling. The dance takes them to a point of excitement that culminates when both individuals launch a calcareous dart through a rapid ejection. The dart penetrates the couple, increasing the excitement of both gastropods resulting in the evagination of the penis. The copulation begins when, in a reciprocal way, both individuals penetrate their partner’s vagina, thus depositing the sperm. The courtship stage lasts approximately 12 hours. Fertilization of the eggs can happen immediately, and they will be buried about ten days after that courtship. The snail can also hold sperm for a year without fertilizing its eggs. It is understood that this ability of the snail exists to enable him to only deposit his eggs when he considers is propitious.

Egg laying, work of suspenders

Normally about 10 days after copulation, the snail will start laying eggs. For that it needs a soft substrate and a certain humidity where it will drill a tunnel of approximately 4cm. It will be buried almost entirely through that tunnel and will begin to lay its eggs.

The eggs are perfectly white, spherical and about 3 – 4mm in diameter. To lay each egg, they will need between 5 to 20 minutes. This stage is very long and exhausting for the animal, which will sometimes require 48 hours to complete its laying. The average of the lay of one Helix Aspersa will be about 100 eggs.

Once the snail completes its task, it will retreat through the same tunnel, carefully covering it and then go in search of water, food and rest.

How are the eggs collected?

The eggs are collected from the substrate once the snail has left the nest. Many layings are in cluster form and others are not. This is the reason why this work is manual, meticulous and time-consuming. Once most of the peat has been removed by means of a dry sieve, these will be sifted with cold water, thus eliminating remaining peat. During this washing, the first egg selection is made.

Are all the eggs of a laying used to make snail caviar?

The eggs used by Barcelona Pearls to produce their products require certain characteristics such as: white pearl color, 4mm diameter, perfectly spherical shape and maximum tonicity in their shell. Not all the eggs of the same nest are the same, so it must be carefully selected causing a loss of up to 50% of eggs.

How many snails does Barcelona Pearls need to make one of its 50g cans?

Each laying weighs about 2.8 g, but due to the characteristics that are needed, it will require about 35 animals.

How to start the production of snail caviar?

The eggs are taken to the Barcelona Pearls facilities.  They have been designed exclusively to produce this product. Since its beginnings, they were conceived to provide maximum hygiene and practicability during the manufacturing process.

Inside, the eggs receive an exhaustive disinfectant wash that allows to eliminate possible contamination coming from the farm. Once that wash is finished, the eggs are dipped in a salty broth to cure the product. This brine will also be responsible for ensuring the durability of this products freshness. Each company develops its own elaborate recipe and safeguards the secret.

Is it true that there are secret recipes?

Barcelona Pearls, like other producers, creates their own master recipes for production which require a lot of patience and development time. That is the reason why these recipes are secret. Barcelona Pearls has gone further with the development of its product and has created not only the original product but also other variants. Only natural ingredients are used in all our products.

What happens after curing?

Once this process is finished, the eggs will receive a new inspection which will be done with the help of a magnifying glass. This final quality-control is the one that takes more time since it seeks to ensure the homogeneity of the product that will be in the previously sterilized glass jars. Once the final inspection is finished, the product will be kept at a constant temperature of 4˚C to ensure its freshness and durability.

Can you make frozen egg snail caviar?

Like many foods, snail eggs can be frozen, but it is not recommended, as freezing causes a loss of flavor and tonicity of their shell; fundamental characteristics of what makes good snail caviar

Can caviar be pasteurized?

Some companies pasteurize their caviar to increase their durability, but pasteurization alters the texture and color of the eggs. Barcelona Pearls prefers that its product has a perfect flavor and texture during its durability of 4 months.

What is the snail egg made of?

This consists of a shell that is composed of calcium, which hardens on contact with air when the snail releases it in the peat.

This shell has the function of protecting its inner content, the albumin, that is wrapped in a thin transparent membrane.

What kind of snail is used to make caviar?

Barcelona Pearls selected the species Helix Aspersa as it is a snail with great adaptability to captivity, early growth and because of the number of eggs in its laying.

Taxonomy of Helix Aspersa?

It is a gastropod, since it is an invertebrate animal with a soft body and without segmentation; of terrestrial molluscum type since it walks on its belly and only lives in the earth.

How is its biological cycle?

The snail is an animal whose biological cycle depends on the season of the year in which it is found. Throughout the year it will have periods of activity and inactivity. Depending on their activity, alterations in their physiology will be seen, especially during hibernation and estivation periods.

During the hibernation period, it creates a thin veil at the entrance of the shell, the operculum, remaining inside it, in a lethargic state. Its breathing, heart rate and body temperature will decrease to a minimum. At the end of hibernation, it will have lost 40% of its weight because during hibernation, lives on the reserves accumulated during their periods of activity. Estivation is a phase very similar to hibernation, but this takes place in times when temperatures exceed 24 ˚C and there is low humidity.

What is the relationship between reproduction and hibernation?

During hibernation the snail rests by burying itself in the earth and will remain there until the temperature begins to rise at the end of winter. Naturally, it will begin to wake up and come up to the surface in search of water and food. This recovery phase can last for weeks. Once its recovery is complete and has fully regained its senses, it will focus e on finding a partner again.

They see, smell and taste?

They can recognize what surrounds them since they have the sense of touch, this is possible since they have neuroleptic cells located in the tentacles, lips and edge of the foot. These cells are sensitive to physical stimuli.

They have a primitive vision whose eye organs are located at the end of the larger tentacles. They can distinguish shapes between light and darkness within 5cm distance. They are not able to perceive colors.

Its olfactory receptors are distributed in its lower tentacles and lips which are able to smell no further than 50 cm. These receptors are intertwined with their sense of taste through which the snail can differentiate types of food.

They have otocysts, at the base of the larger tentacles and feet, which are organs responsible for the equilibrium sense of invertebrates, they are also sensitive to vibrations produced by sound. The otocysts that are located on the feet allow them to orientate themselves and provide them with information about their position.

Sleeps during the day and eats at night?

The snail avoids light, which means that its active period occurs in the dark. Like other animals in nature, they also need a light cycle to regulate their biological rhythm. This is especially important during the breeding season, if they have less than 6 hours of light a day they will not lay eggs.

What does a snail feed on?

In nature, the snail feeds on the vegetation that surrounds it. In farms, their feeding will be of fodder which are different depending on which stage of development they are in.

Snails in captivity, since when?

Snail shells have been found in settlements dating back to prehistoric times, which is why it is assumed that they have been consumed already since then.

In 50 BC, in Italy, it is known that the Romans, helped by their ideal climate of the Mediterranean, raised and consumed snails. At that time, it was considered a delicacy for the wealthy and powerful. Although snails have been cultivated for at least 2000 years, their successful cultivation, even nowadays, is still a challenge.

Outdoor farm?

This is called extensive park, where snails are raised as they grow in nature. It is an outdoor area with containment systems to keep the snails in a delimited space. Being an open-air farm, the climate is not controlled, therefore natural cycles of the snail such as hibernation, estivation and reproduction will be the result of the natural calendar of the specific area where it is located. Due to the structure of this type of parks it is difficult to control their feeding. Although they are provided with fodders they also feed on the vegetation that surrounds them, causing the coloration of their body to be more greenish. Its growth is noticeably slower than what could be obtained in other types of facilities, taking approximately 2 years to have the first productions after having introduced breeders.

In these types of parks, despite their simple structure, we try to separate the animals based on their age, to find delimited areas for fattening, breeding, etc.

This type of installation is the least expensive and with the least care needed but will have the slowest production.

Farm in greenhouse

The second type of farm is called Intensive Park, in which the snail is raised under controlled environmental conditions that influence its life cycle. To achieve this, enclosed precincts are used where, by means of equipment, parameters of temperature, humidity and lighting are controlled. Because you can have different conditioning, you can separate animals in their different growth phases, where you try to keep them in optimal conditions. This type of farm requires not only greater investment but also greater and permanent care. This makes it possible to obtain production in times where it is not possible without environmental control.

Combining human control and nature

There are farms that combine both systems described above, where environmentally controlled enclosures are used for reproduction and breeding, but for the fattening phase outdoor spaces are used.

This type of facilities allows to advance the laying during the winter, thus obtaining offspring at the end of winter, this will allow the farm to have animals for fattening already in the spring, a phase that can be carried out in greenhouses or extensive parks.

So small and so much work?

Although the snail is a very small mollusk, a snail farm requires a lot of daily work. This one is not only fed and given to drink, but also its environment must be taken care of, the vegetation that gives it shelter. One of the most important daily tasks in a farm is the elimination of corpses. The life of the snail in nature is quite short because it is prey to predators or diseases. In farms, these factors are minimized due to care and protection but the animal itself has a life cycle that will have few springs. In his juvenile stage, 70% mortality rate is considered normal. As the snail grows that mortality rate decreases. In a well-managed farm, during its stages of fattening the death rate still lies around 25%.

I’ve read that the price of snail caviar is high, what is the reason?

Many producers argue that its high cost is due to the fact that each egg that is packaged is checked one by one with a magnifying glass. That is a very partial and simplified version to explain its purchase price.

To obtain qualitatively high-value products, it is necessary to pay attention from the origins of the raw material.

The origin of this product begins on the farm. To obtain a homogeneous production of eggs it is necessary to have a farm that is functioning optimally for at least 5 years. In those 5 years the producer will not only be able to learn about the animal and its behavior in captivity but also to obtain animals that by their characteristics can become breeders. Not every sexually mature animal is considered a breeder, able to lay eggs of sufficient quality that can be used to make caviar.

As described above, in theory the snail could lay once a year, approximately 10 days after copulation. For that, it is provided with optimal conditions in measurable parameters for humans (temperature, humidity, etc.) but it is only the snail that decides when to deposit its eggs. This makes it difficult to predict the time and the number of eggs a snail will give us.

The snail manages to lay eggs once a year with an average weight of only 2.8g. So, to have a production that is viable from the commercial point of view, it is necessary to take care of many thousands of animals. Thus, the manual work of harvesting the farm is very laborious (as described above).

All the previous factors are the reasons that make the price of snail caviar relatively high.

What is the similarity of snail caviar with others?

The snail caviar cannot be compared to any caviar. They are completely different products, perhaps only having similarities at certain points due to their craftsmanship. From the organoleptic point of view, they do not have any similarity since their size, color, texture, aroma and taste do not share any similarities.

What flavor does it have?

It is a delight to enjoy the small eggs in the mouth as each single one is perceived on the palate. Its taste is similar in some of our products in relation to the snail but also to chestnut, herbs and roots. The combination of flavor, texture and explosion that they cause in the mouth are the reasons why this product captivates new palates and gives the sensation of being in a forest.