US government inspector to Chile to check farmed salmon

Tor-Eddie Fossbakk MercoPress.com reported last Friday that sources close to the Patagonia Times had revealed the FDA team will visit five specific sites and will be testing for Malachite Green -a fungicide thought to be carcinogenic- as well as four different kinds of Flouroquinolones (antibiotics). In addition, the FDA plans for the first time to test Chilean salmon for Crystal Violet, also a fungicide. In late 2006, health authorities in Great Britain detected Crystal Violet in a shipment of Chilean salmon exported originally by industry leader Marine Harvest. It is unclear if this FDA visit is a routinely scheduled event, or if it comes in response to recent media coverage raising questions about the relative health of Chilean salmon. The New York Times publishes a scathing article entitled “Salmon Virus Indicts Chile’s Fishing Methods,” late last month. The article among other things aired concerns about the industry’s alleged overuse of antibiotics. Just days after the article appeared, Safeway, one of the largest food retailers in the United States, went public with a decision to reduce purchases of Chilean salmon. US-based Pew Environment Group claims that neither the FDA nor the Chilean government have been sufficiently open to sharing information about testing and chemical use in Chilean salmon farming. The group would like the public to know in more detail what tests the Chilean government and its national fisheries service, SERNAPESCA, conduct on farmed salmon and how many samples of Chilean farmed salmon are tested annually. PEW would also like to see that the FDA greatly expands its testing of Chilean salmon. In 2007, the FDA tested just 40 samples out of the 114,320 net tons of salmon it imported from Chile. None tested positive for prohibited substances.