Sernapesca discards presence of crystal violet in processing plant

Christian Pérez The National Service of Fisheries and Aquaculture, Sernapesca, informed that eight samples of salmon muscle with skin were taken from the processing plant in order to detect crystal violet (CV), leuco crystal violet (LCV), tetracycline, erythromycin, malachite green, leuco malachite green and florfenicol. The diagnostic lab commissioned for these tests reported negative results for all these analytes, the Chilean newspaper La Segunda reports. Moreover, Sernapesca commented that these samples were not taken from those fish detained by the FDA due to alleged presence of crystal violet. After tracing the origin of the questioned fish, Sernapesca mapped out that the questioned salmon was farmed in the farming site Apiao. Likewise, Sernapesca established that those fish were processed in the Pesquera del Mar Antártico processing plant in Puerto Montt, which was inspected in July 2013 as part of a monthly quality assurance inspection programme. Currently, there are some ongoing tests with fish farmed in Apiao and other farming sites belonging to Marine Harvest Chile as well, in order to compare all samples. Results of these tests will be known the second week of August. Meanwhile, Sernapesca has requested a clarification from the FDA regarding whether the compound found in salmon from Marine Harvest was crystal violet or leuco crystal violet -which is produced after salmon consumes CV.