Caviar (also known as caviare; from ) is a food consisting of salt-cured roe of the family Acipenseridae. Caviar is considered a delicacy and is eaten as a garnish or spread. Traditionally, the term caviar refers only to roe from wild sturgeon in the Caspian Sea and Black Sea (Beluga, Ossetra and Sevruga caviars). The term caviar can also describe the roe of other species of sturgeon or other fish such as paddlefish, salmon, steelhead, trout, lumpfish, whitefish, or carp. The roe can be "fresh" (non-pasteurized) or pasteurized, with pasteurization reducing its culinary and economic value. Terminology According to the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization, roe from any fish not belonging to the Acipenseriformes order (including Acipenseridae, or sturgeon sensu stricto, and Polyodontidae or paddlefish) are not caviar, but "substitutes of caviar." This position is also adopted by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, the World Wide Fund for Nature, the United States Customs Service, and France. The term caviar is sometimes used to describe dishes that are perceived to resemble caviar, such as "eggplant caviar" (made from eggplant) and "Texas caviar" (made from black-eyed peas). History Caviar and sturgeon from the Sea of Azov began reaching the tables of aristocratic and noble Greeks in the 10th century, after the commencement of large-scale trading between the Byzantine Empire and Kievan Rus'. Varieties The main types of caviar from sturgeon species native to the Caspian Sea are Beluga, Sterlet, Kaluga hybrid, Ossetra, Siberian sturgeon and Sevruga. American White Sturgeon caviar is abundant and native to California and the U.S. Pacific Northwest. The rarest and costliest is from beluga sturgeon that swim in the Caspian Sea, which is bordered by Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia, Turkmenistan, and Azerbaijan. Wild caviar production was suspended in Russia between 2008 and 2011 to allow wild stocks to replenish. Azerbaijan and Iran also allow the fishing of sturgeon off their coasts. Beluga caviar is prized for its soft, extremely large (pea-size) eggs. It can range in colour from pale silver-grey to black. It is followed by the small golden sterlet caviar which is rare and was once reserved for Russian, Iranian and Austrian royalty. Next in quality is the medium-sized, light brown to rich brown Ossetra, also known as Russian caviar. Others in the quality ranking are the grey sevruga caviar, the Chinese Kaluga caviar, and the American white sturgeon