Consumer advocate Choice warns that Australians are eating imported fish that have not been tested for harmful toxins. It is found that authorities test only 5 percent of fish arriving from abroad. IN a press release Choice calls for Australians to have similar protection as in the US, where national regulator the Food and Drug Administration tests all shipments of certain farmed fish species from China. It further said that the US repeatedly finds banned chemicals, including fungicides and antibiotics, in imported fish.
Choice spokesman Christopher Zinn told that fish found by Choice to be contaminated are rejected, however 95 percent of imports are not routinely tested nor is domestically produced seafood. According to Food Standards Australia New Zealand there were 16 percent of domestically farmed fish and 17 percent of imported farmed fish found to be contain the fungicide malachite green, a chemical used in a farming to prevent disease and parasites.
Zinn told that large fish such as swordfish, marlin and shark can contain mercury at levels that harm small children and pregnant women, not to mention being harvested unsustainably, the report found. He added that consumers were getting mixed messages, being told by government and health authorities to eat more fish because of its health benefits.
Meanwhile, Choice has called for the next revision of the Australian Dietary Guidelines to consider the impact of fishing practices, saying labels should be more clearly detailed in terms of where seafood came from and how it was caught. In this regard the Australian Marine Conservation Society has released a guide with a colour-coded table.
