|
Poor processors must raise standards, says salmon grouping
POOR processors must do more to ensure the safety of seafood products, a salmon trade organisation has said. The comment came today following a health scare centring on salmon retailing in Germany.
A study conducted by a German television programme claimed that five of 33 salmon brands bought from German supermarkets were contaminated with listeria bacteria. Scientists believe the contamination occurred during the processing and packaging stage, which usually takes place in Germany.
Listeria is a rare, but potentially life-threatening disease. Although some adults experience only mild infections of the eye and skin, and gastroenteritis, it can lead to severe blood poisoning (septicaemia) or meningitis.
In addition to importing farmed Atlantic salmon from Scotland, Ireland and Norway, Germany imports various brands of sockeye salmon from North America. According to media reports, two of the five contaminated samples have been identified as coming from Norway, one from Ireland and another from Alaska. It is thought the final sample could have come from any European country.
Experts are predicting that the discovery will lead German consumers to boycott fish, which could have a huge impact on pre-Christmas sales of salmon.
Commenting on the news, Dr John Webster, Technical Director, Scottish Salmon Producers’ Organisation told FISHupdate.com: “Having looked at the report, it strikes me that the listeria that has been reported is something to do with the processing and packing rather than the raw materials that are going into the smoked salmon production. . . What I think is that there’s contamination in the plant and when the fresh salmon is coming in for smoking it is picking up the contamination actually in the factory rather than it coming in with the raw material. This is not really about salmon, it’s about processing and where processors really need to do just a bit better.”
Dr Webster said that while the vast majority of processors operate to very high standards, the sector is being let down by the odd one or two.
“When people buy smoked salmon they expect it to be safe and wholesome and when individual processors can’t quite make that, it’s really not acceptable. So it’s up to the authorities in Germany to go and resolve this problem.”
Despite the fact that so far none of the contaminated salmon has been identified as coming from Scotland, the industry fears that sales could be hit by the scare.
“One of the things that we’re very keen to make known is the fact that we pride ourselves on the highest standards of quality and safety and we work very, very hard to ensure we’re at the top of the ladder as far as this sort of thing is concerned,” Dr Webster continued. “It’s a terrible shame really when a processor in another country does something wrong and the raw material that we’re producing to these high standards is implicated in some way."
|
