What's the difference between "roe" and "caviar"?

What's the difference between "roe" and "caviar". Wikipedia has two different articles, however, the difference is not explain in the either one.


From an article on “What is the Difference Between Caviar and Roe?” at www.culinarylore.com:

They refer to the same thing: fish eggs. However, the term roe refers to the fish eggs (or male fish sperm) themselves while caviar is roe that has been salted or "cured" and then placed in tins for storage and aging. In the United States and Canada, any product that is only labeled caviar must come from sturgeon roe. If it contains the roe from any other fish, such as whitefish, it must be labelled with the name of the fish, such as whitefish roe, salmon roe, carp roe, trout roe, etc. The roe of shellfish is also used. In Europe, however, the term caviar is reserved exclusively for the roe of sturgeon. Roe from other fish must be called caviar substitute.

Here is a pictorial comparison of them, with salmon eggs on the left and sturgeon caviar on the right:

image of salmon eggs left and sturgeon caviar right


From an article https://www.markys.com/Caviar/what-is-caviar.html
Traditionally, the designation “caviar” was only used for sturgeon roe obtained from wild sturgeon species living in the Caspian and Black Seas: Beluga, Osetra (Russian Sturgeon & Persian Sturgeon) and Sevruga, so called the “True Sturgeons”.

Depending on a country’s national laws, the word “caviar” can also be used to describe the roe of other sturgeon species and non-sturgeon fish, such as salmon, steelhead, trout, lumpfish and whitefish.

According to the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization, roe from any fish not belonging to the order of Acipenseriformes are not caviar, but caviar substitutes. This position was also adopted by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), the World Wide Fund for Nature, the United States Customs Service and the Republic of France. However, if the name of the fish is identified, the word “caviar” can be used. For example: “Salmon Caviar”, ‘Bowfin Caviar”, “Lumpfish Caviar”, “Trout Caviar” etc.