MANGALURU: The Dakshina Kannada district administration and food and civil supplies minister UT Khader sent a stern warning to the fish exportersand eateries that they would be held responsible if more fish poisoning cases were reported.
This warning came in the backdrop of more than a hundred persons including workers of a fish exporting company falling ill after consuming red snapper fish heads in Ullal recently. With some exporters indicating that the poisonous puffer fish was also sold in the local markets and used in restaurants, deputy commissioner Jagadeesha KG directed restaurants to take due diligence while serving fish to consumers.
Khader, who chaired the meeting, said fish exporters need to take proper precautions while dispatching heads and viscera for fish meal or manure.
As there was no standard protocol to deal with such cases, Jagadeesha KG said a committee would be constituted with experts to draw guidelines on processing of fish that are poisonous and are used by the local population and also on the treatment to be administered in such situations. "We cannot say that it may not happen again. Hence, standard protocols are necessary," he added.
He warned the fish exporters that their units would be shut down if any head or parts which are deemed poisonous were found in the market and affected people. He explicitly told the exporters to use the remains of such fish for only manure since Dr Iddya Karunasagar, consultant, Food Safety and Standards Authority of India(FSSAI) said making fish feed of the poisonous part was not advisable.
He also told the fisheries and food safety department to circulate guidelines to restaurants and eateries that they would be held responsible if consumers fell ill after consumption of such fish cooked at their premises.
Marine Authority personnel Ashok Kumar said that the Red Snapper fish had been caught outside Indian territorial waters and they were yet to analyse where the catch had come from. "We have to trace the boat which did the fishing and get the GPS coordinates from them to know where the catch came from," he told TOI.
Khader also shared information that this was not the first time people fell ill due to fish poisoning. "That time we did not know what it was," he added.
Scientists from Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute, Mangaluru unit, and others pointed out that there were three or four varieties of fish which accumulated poison during certain seasons only and throughout the year.
The cases happen when some unicellular algae called dinoflagellates, which can be toxic, are eaten by fish and when these fish are eaten by larger fish. The poison gets accumulated in marine and estuarine fish (red snapper, grouper, perches) or molluscan shellfish (clams, oysters, muscles), and cause severe illnesses. One of the common poisoning due to consumption of marine fish is ciguatera food poisoning. The toxic fish have no alteration of odour, colour or taste, thus, making it very difficult to identify the potential risk associated with contamination.
Khader said the departments, fisheries, food safety has to prepare guidelines and give wide publicity on fish to avoid and how to consume such fish in a safe way.
No comments:
Post a Comment