Fishy standards may pose risk to ‘salmon’ eaters

IN COLLABORATION with enterprises, the China Aquatic Products Processing and Marketing Alliance recently drafted a new standard that categorizes rainbow trout as salmon. Beijing News comments:

Salmon, as purchased by consumers, generally refers to Atlantic salmon, and not the so-called freshwater salmon, rainbow trout, which are a different genus.

But for a long time, many restaurants and shops have served the latter when customers order salmon. If customers cannot tell the difference, they will say that rainbow trout are salmon too.

While they are of the same family, the restaurants’ explanation is not only specious, but also poses a risk to human health. The raw meat of true salmon can be served after strict freezing processes that kill the parasites inside. Yet no medical professional will dare propose eating the raw meat of rainbow trout, which might contain parasites that are difficult to kill without proper cooking. Strictly speaking, medical professionals advise never eating the raw meat of any kind of freshwater fish because only cooking can kill the parasites inside their bodies.

That’s why many medical professionals and biologists have criticized restaurants for serving rainbow trout as salmon and have called for the practice to be banned.

As a result, there are doubts about the newly released standards. By classifying rainbow trout as salmon, the alliance is encouraging restaurants to continue in their customary way. Customers will need to spend more time and energy learning to distinguish “true salmon” from rainbow trout, while restaurants will have to make efforts to convince consumers that they are serving “true salmon” not rainbow trout. Only the enterprises that sell rainbow trout will benefit because they can continue claiming they sell “freshwater salmon”.

According to the law, the standard released by the enterprises and their alliance is only a nonmandatory group standard. Every consumer has the right to refuse it. So next time if you go to a restaurant, order “salmon” and get a dish of rainbow trout instead, you can complain.

A more serious problem is that, the new standard requires rainbow trout businesses to label the sources of their products and terminate all parasites inside, but some enterprises might neglect to do this. The food authorities should intervene to prevent that from happening.