Boycott based on bogus science

A number of Irish eNGOs, including Friends of the Irish Environment, have called on consumers to avoid salmon, claiming that they contained residues of a number of chemicals used to treat sea lice – a claim that has been rubbished by the ISGA, which issued a statement to Fish Farming Expert saying: “A group of organisations who campaign to ruin hundreds of jobs on Irish farms, processing plants, smokeries and shops in Ireland in the run up to Christmas each year have been reduced to deliberately misreported data to give make an entirely false claim regarding chemical residues in Irish farmed organic salmon.

“The test result released in conjunction with a press release by those organisations in fact shows the opposite is true. This handwritten note confirms that no unauthorised chemicals or medicines were present in the single fish concerned. Yet this single piece of “evidence” is the basis for the entire campaign to “boycott farmed salmon”.

“The results in question actually show that of 10 chemicals tested, 6 were not detected at all (It is normal laboratory protocol to use the “<” sign describes a result as either “not detected” or “below the limit of detection”). Therefore the fish did not contain any Deltamethrin, Oxytetracycline, Malachite Green, Leuco Malachite, MS222, or BHT.

“Emamectin benzoate is an anti-sea lice product which is authorised and has a permitted residue limit authorised by the EU and national authorities. In this particular case the level detected is well below the permitted level (1.2 ug/kg when the permitted level is 100ug/kg).

“BHA and Ethoxyquin are permitted antioxidants found in fishmeal and fish oil (feed ingredients) necessary for the prevention of spontaneous combustion in fishmeal and oils transported by sea.  These were permitted antioxidants in 2011 and again at barely detectable levels.

“These facts have been ignored by the campaign and in fact distorted to an extent where headlines in the media have unfairly damaged the reputation of Irish organic salmon and the company involved. In fact the group’s press release accuses the company of actually using an ‘illegal chemical’ when the proof they cite shows the complete opposite to be true.

“The handwritten note published is an extract from the report of a Department of Agriculture Inspector which was compiled during an inspection visit of Marine Harvest Ireland in 2012 and is the Inspector’s note of a record kept by the company of internal testing carried out on a single fish in 2011. This is an example of many voluntary internal tests (almost 3,000 in the past 10 years) carried out by the company over and above that required by law for confirmatory purposes to give confidence to customers that their products are free of any illegal medicines or residues. This voluntary testing is in addition to the 430 random regulatory tests carried out on MHI by the Marine Institute during 2011 out under the Animal Remedies Act which also confirmed that no illegal residue levels of authorised products nor unauthorised chemicals of any kind were present in the fish.”