Eels banned over cancer fears
2005-08-22 10:33
Singapore - Eels are being pulled from supermarket shelves and restaurant menus in Singapore over concerns that the fish bred in China contain traces of a banned chemical that may cause cancer, food officials confirmed on Monday.
Consumers who already purchased eel products of China origin have been told to discard them.
The Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) ordered the recall as a precaution after low levels of malachite green were detected in eel samples from China.
The industrial dye is used by some fish farmers to treat fungal infections and parasite problems in their stock.
No cause for alarm
Fifty-seven percent of eel imports in Singapore come from China. The rest are from Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Japan and Germany.
Short-term exposure to low levels of the chemical is not a health risk to humans, the AVA said on Sunday in a statement, assuring the public there was no cause for alarm.
A person would have to consume more than 5 000 pieces, each 100g and continuing residue of the chemical, to suffer any ill affects, the AVA said.
Singapore will be testing all eel imports to as well as catfish, trout and salmon before they are released for sale.
China suspended shipments of eels last week after health officials in Guangdoing found malachite green in the species from southwestern Guangxi and southeastern Fujian provinces, the AVA said.
- SAPA