According to a Chile-based environmental organization German health officials recently detected banned chemicals in Chilean farmed salmon. The German officials claimed that they have found traces of crystal violet, a potentially carcinogenic antifungal, in two samples, as well as a banned anti-parasitic drug called abamectina. Ecoceanos of Santiago, Chile, informed that the Chilean fish farmers use up to 300 times more antibiotics than their Norwegian counterparts.
Juan Carlos Cárdenas, head of Ecoceanos, explained that once again salmon products coming from Chile are being scrutinized by consumers and by European commercial chains. He added that the presence of such substances in the fish shows how weak the system is for controlling the indiscriminate and/or illegal use of chemicals in food production.
The group said that Germany’s Federal Office for Consumer Protection and Food Safety tested 42 samples of Chilean farmed salmon in which they detect these banned chemicals. The European Union does not allow imports of foods treated with crystal violet. It is fact that Chile’s farmed salmon industry has struggled for more than a year to fight an outbreak of infectious salmon anemia (ISA), a highly contagious virus that can be lethal to salmon but does not affect humans.
