The smell of freeze-dried anchovies, honestly

Do freeze dried anchovies smell? Yes. The anchovy listing describes a strong natural fish smell and leans into it, so nobody is hiding anything. We have no more to say about it than that. We won't tell you how far it travels or how long it stays, because we have not written those down.

Do freeze-dried anchovies have a strong smell?

Yes, and the listing says so plainly. It calls it a strong natural fish smell. That is the entire description we have, and we are going to leave it there.

You might expect an explanation next. There isn't one on our side. The listing does not say why the smell is what it is, and we are not going to invent a reason. It also does not measure the smell, so we cannot say how it compares with anything else in your kitchen.

What we can tell you is what is in the bag. It is anchovies, the species named on the listing as Stolephorus chinensis, and nothing else. No grains, fillers or dyes go in. The fish is freeze-dried raw in small batches in Malvern, Pennsylvania from imported fish, and the bag is one size, 2 ounces.

So the practical read is simple. If you open a bag and your nose says fish, that is the product doing what the listing said it would. Plan on it the way you plan on a tire shop smelling like rubber.

How do the other fish bags describe their smell?

We went back through the listings for the other fish to see what each one says. Here is what we found.

The sardine heads listing is the only one that mentions aroma. It says the aroma makes the heads a pick for training. That is a statement about use, and it does not describe how strong the aroma is.

The whole sardine listing and the minnow listing say nothing about smell. So we say nothing either. We are not going to guess that one is milder or stronger than another, and you should be a little suspicious of any page that does.

That leaves the anchovies as the one bag where the listing puts smell up front. If you are shopping for a bag that makes no noise in the pantry, we cannot promise you that from any of the four. If you are shopping for one the listing is upfront about, the anchovies are it.

How do you keep the smell in the bag?

Keep the bag closed. The anchovy listing says to reseal it and keep it cool and dry, and that no refrigerator is needed. That is the whole storage instruction we have for this fish.

We do not have a claim that resealing contains the smell completely. What we have is the listing's storage advice, and it reads as housekeeping for the product, not as odor control. Follow it, and see for yourself how your own pantry responds.

A couple of things are within your control without any claim from us. You can decide where the bag lives. You can decide when it is open, and for how long. Open it when you are ready to hand out a piece, take what you need, and close it again. Our guide on how to store fish treats covers the storage side in more detail.

If you carry treats on walks, a resealed bag does the carrying. We wrote a separate piece on anchovies for dog training, which owns pouch use, so we leave that to it.

What should you do after handling anchovies?

Wash your hands. The anchovies are freeze-dried raw, like our sardines, sardine heads and minnows. The sardine heads listing puts it this way: "This is raw fish, so wash your hands after handling it." It is that listing's sentence, and since the anchovies are freeze-dried raw too, we repeat it here.

A few more habits are worth having. Think of anchovies as a treat or a topper, never the whole diet. Supervise while your dog eats, and keep fresh water out. Keep the total inside your dog's treat share. For dogs, that share is the calculator's default of 10 percent, which the sardine page credits to VCA's treat guidance. Our freeze-dried anchovies page has the calculator and the label.

If your dog has had trouble with seafood before, the listing's advice is to ask your veterinarian first. All of our fish guides are gathered in the guides hub.