MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

US FDA team in Chile to inspect salmon industry

A team of US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) officials arrived Friday in Chile where over the next several days they will conduct on-site inspections of the country's once-booming salmon industry.

Sources close to the Patagonia Times revealed that the FDA will visit five specific sites and will be testing for Malachite Green -a fungicide thought to be carcinogenic- as well as four different kinds of Flouroquinolones (antibiotics). In addition, the FDA plans for the first time to test Chilean salmon for Crystal Violet, also a fungicide. In late 2006, health authorities in Great Britain detected Cyrstal Violet in a shipment of Chilean salmon exported originally by industry leader Marine Harvest. What is not clear is whether the FDA visit is a routinely scheduled event, or if it comes in response to recent media coverage raising questions about the relative health of Chilean salmon. Late last month the New York Times published a scathing article entitled "Salmon Virus Indicts Chile's Fishing Methods," which among other things aired concerns about the industry's alleged overuse of antibiotics. Just days after the article appeared, Safeway, one of the largest food retailers in the United States, went public with a decision to reduce purchases of Chilean salmon. The Patagonia Times has tried repeatedly to contact the FDA. So far the only response was a short e-mail saying the purpose of the trip is "to assess the country's overall controls of chemotherapeutic residues in aquacultured products exported to the United States"- According to the US-based Pew Environment Group, neither the FDA nor the Chilean government have been sufficiently open to sharing information about testing and chemical use in Chilean salmon farming. "The public needs to know what type of tests the Chilean government and its national fisheries service, SERNAPESCA, conduct on farmed salmon and how many samples of Chilean farmed salmon are tested annually," said Andrea Kavanagh, head of the Pew Environment Group's marine aquaculture campaign. The FDA, furthermore, needs to greatly expand its testing of Chilean salmon, she added. In 2007, the FDA tested just 40 samples out of the 114,320 net tons of salmon it imported from Chile. None tested positive for prohibited substances. "Since the US Food and Drug Administration's Food Protection Plan is designed to provide 'an integrated strategy for protecting the nation's food supply,' it should further scrutinize the Chilean salmon farming industry," said Kavanagh. "To get more accurate data, the FDA needs a much larger sampling size and should test for a wider range of chemicals and antibiotics, including Emamectin benzoate and Amphenicols." "It's our hope" she went on to say "that the U.S. FDA and Chile's government will combine their efforts to provide adequate oversight attention ensuring that Chilean farmed salmon is safe for the U.S. market and the marine environment". Chilean salmon producers, for their part, insist they welcome this week's FDA visit as a chance to clear their good name. "It's the best news we've heard," SalmonChile César Barros said during a recent press conference. "We trust the FDA and the FDA trusts us. If you look at the New York Times article, the part where we come out looking best is precisely the bit where it says (the FDA) routinely inspects shipments of Chilean salmon and that they've never found any traces or residues of prohibited chemicals. And so I hope they come soon." The Santiago Times