FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 9, 2007

CONTACT:
Dave Bard,
202.486.4426

Statement by Andrea Kavanagh, director, Pure Salmon Campaign,

on farmed fish eating contaminated fish meal

Washington. — U.S. investigators found that farm-raised fish have been eating fish meal laced with melamine, the same chemical linked to the recent pet food recall and pet deaths.

"For weeks now, melamine, has been wreaking havoc here in the states. This chemical found in plastics and pesticides made its way from China into pet food sold in the U.S. forcing a national recall and resulting in the deaths of more than 8,000 dogs and cats. Last week, more than 20 million chickens and thousands of pigs consumed feed also laced with melamine. Today, we learned that farm-raised fish have been eating fish meal contaminated with the very same chemical.

"This is not the first time farmed fish have been the subject of food safety concerns. Antiparisitics and other contaminants such as crystal violet, malachite green, emamectin and cadmium have all been found in farm-raised fish. These chemicals pose known and potential risks to human health.

"The United States currently imports approximately 200,000 tons of farmed salmon annually, but very little of it is ever tested for diseases or chemical contaminants. The FDA just announced that it is "considering" enforcement options to check the safety of imported fish and fish meal. That’s not good enough. The FDA needs to step up to the plate and begin testing for a wide range of chemicals and contaminants hiding in the fish we import from overseas.

"Since Salmon of the Americas claims to have full traceability of all the ingredients that go into farmed salmon products, every salmon farming company operating in Canada, Chile and the U.S. should come clean and reveal if their farmed salmon is affected and how much contaminated salmon has reached U.S. consumers."

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The Pure Salmon Campaign is a global project of the National Environmental Trust. It has partners in the United States, Canada, Europe and Chile all working to improve the way salmon is produced.

Background

• Skretting Canada yesterday initiated a voluntary recall of all fish feeds related to a batch of the Bio-Oregon brand shipped to the U.S. and in which the FDA found melamine. Read their statement.[PDF]
• For more information about farmed salmon and human health, Visit Pure Salmon.