Aquaculture for all

Food Scare Recall on Scottish Salmon

UK - World leading aquaculture firm Marine Harvest was at the centre of a nationwide food scare last night. Retail giant Morrisons issued a recall on all the supplier's fresh Scottish salmon products.

It appears that fish processed at the company's plant at Mallaig, on the west coast of Scotland may have been tainted by white spirit while being shipped to the plant post harvest.

The vessel used to transport the live fish from a farm is now at the centre of an investigation by the company.

Reports in the Press and Journal, say that Morrisons has pulled the product from its fresh-fish counters and pre-packed chillers and urged customers to return any salmon and smoked salmon products with use-by dates of 10 to 13 February 2008, to its stores.

The Food Standards Agency (FSA) has also issued an alert giving details of affected products. These include Morrisons Scottish salmon fillet, fillets with parsley, with lime and coriander, in cranberry and orange-flavour glaze and lightly smoked salmon fillet with tomato and chorizo melt.

An FSA spokesman said the retailer had told the watchdog about the incident after receiving around 50 customer complaints. FSA assured that the chemicals in the white spirit, are not thought to pose a risk to consumer health.

The taint, which causes a chemical taste to the flesh of the fish, could also affect salmon supplied to other retailers. Marine Harvest has refused to reveal which customers had been informed and those that may be involved.

The ccompanysays it is investigating the cause of this taint, which it believes is present in a small number of harvested fish. It believes the cause is related to the harvest process rather than the growing farms. However, as a precaution, the company says it has stopped using one of its well boat while investigations continue.

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