Time Out New York
Eat Out: The City’s Best Restaurants and Bars
“Calvisius Caviar Lounge: Wild sturgeon may be an endangered species, but that’s all the more reason to eat the caviar at this tony lounge that searves two types of Italian roe-white sturgeon and osetra-harvested from farmed fish. Tins are available for retail purchases, or diners can order one of the few prepared options (with toast, blini or pureed potato). 58 E 58th St between Madison and Park Aves (212-207-8222)”

The New York Times
The Race to Satisfy Caviar Craving.
By Jane Black
Agroittica's processing room looks like a hospital emergency room. The workers dress in white lab coats, surgical gloves and hairnets. To reduce bacterial contamination, the room is pressurized so that no outside air can enter while the eggs are being cleaned, weighed and salted. This, according to Agroittica's managing director, Sandro Cancellieri, extends shelf life and improves flavor, since less salt needs to be added for preservation.

But the technology that every farm is racing to develop is one that would determine the optimum moment to harvest the eggs. Harvest too early and the caviar will be rough and dry because the fat is still in the fish's belly, not the eggs. Harvest too late and the caviar will be soft and lack distinctive beads. (Wild caviar is always harvested at the ideal time because the sturgeon are caught as they swim upriver to their spawning ground.)

With farmed sturgeon, biologists must rely on educated guesses about when a fish will release her eggs. In general, baerii sturgeon, the breed grown in farms in established European farms and newer operations in Asia and the Middle East, mature within five years. White sturgeon, grown in the United States and Italy, mature in eight. To be sure, each fish must be individually biopsied. Marine biologists make a small incision, insert a plastic tube and manually suck a few eggs from each fish. If the test roe are black, the eggs are ready. If they are white, the fish will need about another year to reach full potential.

The Independent
Scientist Step in to Head off Caviar Crisis
By Peter Popham
“No one planned it this way, and no one would have predicted it but, bucking all the trends and defying all the critics, it has become the world's largest caviar farm. And business has never been so good.”

International Herald Tribune
Caviar From Farms Instead of the Seas.
By Jane Black
More well-established farms are using impressive technology. At Agroittica Lombarda in Calvisano, Italy, the world's largest caviar farm, each female white sturgeon has a microchip containing its genetic information implanted in the back of its head. Besides noting the fish's parents and grandparents, other information is stored, like first recorded weight, pond of origin and diet.

Each time the fish is examined or moved, the digital record is updated. Its life history can be read by running a small scanner over its head. Such detailed records ensure that there is genetic diversity in the stock.

Agroittica's processing room looks like a hospital emergency room. The workers dress in white lab coats, surgical gloves and hairnets. To reduce bacterial contamination, the room is pressurized so that no outside air can enter while the eggs are being cleaned, weighed and salted. This, according to Agroittica's managing director, Sandro Cancellieri, extends shelf life and improves flavor, since less salt needs to be added for preservation.