我想要油魚(oil fish)的English 新聞

Sale of oilfish to be curbed

Winnie Chong

Friday, January 26, 2007

Imports of oilfish will be temporarily halted and measures are to be stepped up to curb the sale of the product after 14 people fell ill eating incorrectly labeled fish.
However, the government has no plans to ban the importation of oilfish.

ParknShop, which has been accused of labeling oilfish as codfish, has already stopped selling the product.

After a meeting with frozen fish importers, wholesalers, retailers and restaurants, Centre for Food Safety principal medical officer Tina Mok Thursday said the government had reached a consensus with traders and the import of oilfish would be temporarily stopped.

Traders also agreed to destroy all oilfish in their possession, including codfish suspected to be oilfish. They will also verify if the cod they have is fit for consumption.

Italy and Japan have banned the import of oilfish but Mok said the government was not ready to put a ban in place and would check what countries such as Britain, the United States and Australia are doing.

In the meantime, the government will insist on proper labeling to alert the public to the risk of eating oilfish.

She stressed oilfish is not toxic though it does make some people uncomfortable and embarrassed due to excessive secretion of oil from the body.

"The symptoms are not the same as food poisoning," Mok said. "The discomfort is due to the indigestible content in the fish."

Oilfish is a member of the snake mackerel family and has a high oil content, which cannot be easily digested and may cause diarrhea.

Mok said it was up to traders to properly identify codfish and oilfish which are of similar appearance.

"They should try their best to verify the species," she said, adding the government will also be regulating food labeling.

The oilfish scandal gave rise to calls for ParknShop to be charged but Mok said the government is still investigating how the incorrect labeling occurred and will only take action if there is sufficient evidence. The government is also seeking legal advice from the Department of Justice.

Mok said there had been more than 100 complaints though not all of them pinpointed ParknShop.

She said all claims would be investigated.

Tam Yiu-keung, acting assistant commissioner at the Customs and Excise Department, said customs is liaising with the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department with a view to prosecuting the supermarket chain for labeling offenses. He said customs had successfully prosecuted cases of fake products in the past through the Trade Descriptions Ordinance, but it had yet to determine if the law included the wrong labeling of oilfish.

Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food York Chow Yat-ngok said the priority was to ensure oilfish was not sold in the marketplace.

Consumer Council deputy chief executive Connie Lau Yin-hing criticized ParknShop for not immediately following up on people's complaints, adding she hoped the supermarket would offer reasonable compensation to those affected.

She also urged the government to review its legislation on the compulsory recall of unsafe food items.

Lawmaker Fred Li Wah-ming, deputy chairman of the Legislative Council's food safety and environmental hygiene panel, said the government should legislate for a compulsory recall of food which is unfit for consumption for some people.

"The government should base its decisions on the voice of the public and not delay food legislation. It should be the gatekeeper for safe food instead of asking traders to regulate themselves," he said.

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