Ecoceanos News: Press Release

CONTAMINATION WITH CHEMICAL RESIDUES WAS DETECTED IN SAMPLES OF CHILEAN SALMON TESTED IN GERMANY

Santiago, Chile, October 10th 2008 (Ecoceanos News). The Federal Bureau for Consumers' Protection and Food Safety from Germany (Bundesamt für Verbraucherschutz und Lebensmittelsicherheit / BVL), detected the presence of diverse chemical residues; some of them prohibited at the European Market, when analyzed 42 samples of farmed salmon originated in Chile.

Two of the samples of farmed salmon analyzed by the BVL were rejected by the German authorities due to the detection of the presence of 2µg/kg of the antifungal chemical crystal violet, as well as 8,7 µg/kg de abamectine, a powerful antiparasitary plaguecide used in animal production. Both are not authorized to be used in Germany.

In two other simples were detected 58 µg/kg and 3 µg/kg respectively of the antibiotic tetracycline, which fall within the allowed range in the German market, of 100 µg/kg in salmon muscle (flesh).

German authorities will continue sampling salmon shipments originated in Chile

BVL is the focal point for the National Plan for Antibiotic Control and Safety in Germany, and is a federal autonomous authority within the jurisdiction of the Federal Ministry of Consumers' Protection, Feeding and Agriculture (BMELV). Its headquarters are located in Braunschweig with branches in Bonn and Berlin. It has a 400 employees staff and holds a budget of ca. 30 million euros.

In light of the frequent information about the possibility of abusive use of antibiotics in the production of salmon and trout originated in Chile, the federal agency of consumers' protection adopted precautionary measures at the beginning of 2008, sampling more frequently shipments originated in Chile, measure that will continue to be implemented with a permanent provision of information of the results to the authorities of the different states (bundeslanders) in Germany.

The long story of chemical residues in Chilean salmon

Crystal violet, synonymous of methyl violet or gentian violet, is forbidden to be used at the food processing industry in the European Union, United States and Japan. Its use is not allowed either at the Chilean aquaculture.

The presence of crystal violet has been already detected previously at the European market. On February 2007 the Department for Environment and Rural Affairs (Defra) in the United Kingdom, informed to the National Fisheries Service of Chile (Sernapesca), about the presence of crystal violet residues in salmon skewers that had been processed in Thailand, from raw material coming from Chile and that subsequently were re-exported to the English market. At that time, it drew the attention of both environmental and consumers' organisations the long trip taken by the raw material to get into the European market.

At that time also, the association SalmonChile A.G. refuting the assertions made by Ecoceanos, in a public declaration stated that "the salmon producing companies in Chile have never used the product crystal violet at any part of the production chain" and also that plants for the elaboration of salmon food "do not use crystal violet at any part of the productive cycle".

Likewise, Salmon Chile stated that "all production and processing salmon plants in Chile have state- of- the- art and efficient traceability systems that allow knowing the route of their products during all food chain" and finally said that "the industry permanently develops effective quality controls oriented to comply with the diverse national legislations as well as those from our final markets"

It was noted though, regarding the "crystal violet case" that Sernapesca never said anything officially about it. However, during a meeting held with representatives of various non governmental organisations at the end of 2007, Sernapesca's officers said that "the contamination would have been originated in food supply materials from Brazil"

Residues of chemicals: urges the creation of the Chilean Agency for Food Innocuousness for the protection of public health and the rights of consumers

In Chile, there is no public official information about either the total volume and the kind of chemicals used by the salmon industry. Neither there is a programme of epidemiologic surveillance about the residues of antibiotics; plaguecides and other chemicals on the environment and salmon farming areas. In fact, and despite of several requests, both Chilean consumers and citizens' organisations have been unable to get access to information about the volume and kind of antibiotics and other chemicals imported and used annually by the salmon farming industry.

Research outcomes even accepted by the industry, estimate conservatively that the intensive salmon farming industry in Chile would use between 170 to 300 times more antibiotics per ton of produced salmon compared to Norway. This amount is tacitly acknowledged by some governmental sectors. In this context, citizens' organisations such as Ecoceanos, Olca and Rapal-Chile said that in light of the current sanitary crisis faced by the Chilean salmon industry, those numbers could be largely exceeded.

The veterinary doctor Juan Carlos Cárdenas, Ecoceanos' Director stated that "again the salmon productions originated in Chile are in the eyes of consumers and European sales' chains, evidencing that the insufficient system of governmental control related to food innocuousness; and the uncontrolled and/or illegal use of chemicals by this industry, constitutes some "Achilles' heels" of the Chilean mega-exporting food industry". Because of that reason, he said, that "in these cases both environmental and consumers' organisations are demanding from the government the release of information about traceability and innocuousness of Chilean productions of animal origin"

Lucio Cuenca, from OLCA (Latin America Observatory of Environmental Conflicts) said that "in light of this new information coming from the European market, urges the prompt creation of Agency for Food Innocuousness, that under the control of the Health Ministry, ensures the protection of the public health, the environment and the right of Chilean consumers, surpassing this way the exclusive interests of the big food-exporting companies.

The right for a contaminat free food -as a human right- is demanded

On her turn, María Elena Rozas, from RAP-AL Chile ( Latin America Action Network on Plaguecides and their alternatives) highlighted that "the abamectine founded at salmon exports is a very toxic plaguecide for fish, extremely toxic for aquatic invertebrates and toxic for children development". Rozas indicated that "the European Union has considered it harmful and dangerous for the environment. If food that are exported are contaminated with dangerous toxics, then we are seriously concerned about what is happening with products for internal consumption".

Recently we have verified contamination of fruits and vegetables with plaguecide residues harmful for health. Considering that next 16th of October is the "world day for food, we demand from the authorities to take care for the respect of the right for a healthy food, free of plaguecides and contaminants, as a human right"

Salmon-farming: yesterday malachite green today crystal violet?

Asked about this new incident of contamination with forbidden substances; the veterinary doctor and master on environmental management (c) Cristian Pérez said that, according to the legal mandate, Sernapesca is the competent agency in matters of aquatic animal health, as well as health certification of aquaculture products for export. In that regard, there are a series of regulations of binding (obligatory) nature, that must be obeyed by the industry; including compliance with provisions of the general health programme for residues' control, where is included the monitoring of diverse contaminants, including crystal violet.

At the same time, said Pérez, there are other measures of voluntary nature, such as the programme of quality assurance for fish farms, oriented to both prevent and control the presence of chemical residues, including presence of contaminants, veterinary products, and non authorized and forbidden substances in both fish skin and flesh. Fish-farm centres that wish to participate of such programme are evaluated and supervised by Sernapesca.

Thus, and considering the previously mentioned issues and in light of this new incident of contamination with crystal violet, "it is very important to determine whether the residues of forbidden substances come from centres monitored or certified by Sernapesca".

The use of the traceability system to determine responsibilities on the use of forbidden chemicals in salmon is demanded

The Chilean organisations RAP-AL, Ecoceanos and Olca said that "taking into account that in Chile there is a governmental health programme for residues control of mandatory nature, that includes crystal violet; considering that Germany is one of the more exigent markets regarding the food they consume; and linked to the fact that the salmon industry has stated that crystal violet is not used at any stage of the salmon farming and processing in Chile; it is key – using the traceability system in place – to know the salmon-farming centres and the salmon-farming company or companies responsible for illegally using this carcinogenic chemical, forbidden in Chile as well as the main markets of exportation".

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