Deadly puffer fish sold as salmon kills 15, sickens 115

BANGKOK: -- Unscrupulous vendors in Thailand have been selling meat of the deadly puffer fish disguised as salmon, causing the deaths of more than 15 people over the past three years, a doctor said Thursday.

Although banned since 2002, puffer fish continues to be sold in large quantities at local markets and restaurants, said Narin Hiransuthikul of Bangkok's Chulalonkorn University Hospital.

"Some sellers dye the meat of puffer fish and make it look like salmon which is very dangerous," Narin said.

Narin said over the past three years more than 15 people have died and about 115 were hospitalized from eating the fish.

The ovaries, liver and intestines of the puffer fish contain tetrodotoxin, a poison so potent that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration says it can "produce rapid and violent death."

The fish is called fugu in Japan, where it is consumed by thrill-seeking Japanese gourmets for whom the risk of poisoning adds piquancy.

Every year, there are reports of people dying or falling sick in Asia from eating puffer fish. Eating the fish can cause paralysis, vomiting, heart failure and death.

--AP 2007-08-23

Hmm there's something fishy about this story...

sorry couldn't resist, but seriously, colour aside, does Puffer Fish flesh look anything like Salmon flesh ?

This is so unbelievably horrible...... how much do they make selling "salmon"? Enough to kill over it? Makes me so mad and sad....

Damian

It would be easy to devise a punishment. Puffer intestines sushi.

This news is going to do wonders for salmon sales.

Hmm there's something fishy about this story...

sorry couldn't resist, but seriously, colour aside, does Puffer Fish flesh look anything like Salmon flesh ?

Not at all but processing the meat will do it. The all-you-can-eat buffets, where no one seems to ever need to wash their hands, are kings when it comes to selling processed food full of dyes and preservatives.

U stole my thunder. I posted this a couple of days ago. But, that's OK. This is a better place for it. Maybe this is another version of the "Last Supper". I'm spoiled, since I used to live in Alaska and ate fresh caught wild salmon. Fish farmed stuff is tasteless mush.

This is so unbelievably horrible...... how much do they make selling "salmon"? Enough to kill over it? Makes me so mad and sad....

Damian

The value of a human life has dropped even further in Thailand. I said it before, and I'll say it again........I want to be there when these scum face Judgemant Day.

I also question this. I eat a lot of salmon but I wasn't aware it could easily be mistaken for puffer fish? <deleted>? If this is true, I guess I'll cross that off my list of shopping items.

The story about the puffer fish appears in many international newspapers in Canada, the USA, etc. It's quite a commentary on greed and the profound, current lack of "good goverance" to allow such things to happen.

if puffer fish can be a delicasy and one of the japan's national dishes - why to ban it in thailand?

obviously, if you ban selling it the fishermen will try to disquise it rather than throw back into the sea.

it's not the whole fish, but parts of it which are poisonous - you have to know which bits to throw away and dispose them properly (incineration).

probably there are more deaths from eating wild mushrooms or choking on a fish bone than from the puffer fish. Are we are going to ban mushrooms and fish with bones?

Hmm there's something fishy about this story...

sorry couldn't resist, but seriously, colour aside, does Puffer Fish flesh look anything like Salmon flesh ?

No , Puffer/Fugu has white flesh, The Japanese only eat the fish in special restaurants where the Chefs has a special Fugu license, so the know how to prepare it properly.......tried it a couple of times, nothing special and why take the risk !!

still, several people die in japan every year from puffer fish.

do regulate the trade of it - but outright banning might have the opposite effect. Probably that was the case with thailand.

A Farang/Thai couple I knew in Australia had her mother-in-law visit them, and she used to like fishing. One time when they weren't home she caught a puffer fish and cooked it, when they returned she was dead. Locals of course know not to eat those unsightly looking fish, unfortunately she obviously didn't. No doubt about how dangerous they can be, to deliberately sell them disguised as Salmon, one wonders what type of person could do such a reprehensible thing.

if puffer fish can be a delicasy and one of the japan's national dishes - why to ban it in thailand?

obviously, if you ban selling it the fishermen will try to disquise it rather than throw back into the sea.

it's not the whole fish, but parts of it which are poisonous - you have to know which bits to throw away and dispose them properly (incineration).

probably there are more deaths from eating wild mushrooms or choking on a fish bone than from the puffer fish. Are we are going to ban mushrooms and fish with bones?

Selling it is not the issue.

Illegally and deliberately labelling it as a safe product for greater profit thus resulting in unsuspecting consumers dying is the point here.

A Farang/Thai couple I knew in Australia had her mother-in-law visit them, and she used to like fishing. One time when they weren't home she caught a puffer fish and cooked it, when they returned she was dead. Locals of course know not to eat those unsightly looking fish, unfortunately she obviously didn't. No doubt about how dangerous they can be, to deliberately sell them disguised as Salmon, one wonders what type of person could do such a reprehensible thing.

Could it be the same fish company that stuffs lead weights into the shrimp head ?

obviously all the fake salmon is coming from laos, cambodia and burma just like the leaded shrimp, unless proven otherwise of course...

"Prosperity over consumer deaths"

Welcome to Asia.

as a kid, I recall finding puffer fish washed up on shore. Maybe they were just juviniles, but they seemed to be just a spiny thin white bladder with a head and a tail and fins - with no meat. I don't know, maybe they were a different species.

I ate a cooked fish at a C.Rai restaurant once which had a bunch of black stuff inside. I got sick. In hindsight, if I'd had my act together, I would have sent the fish back as soon as I noticed the odd color.

The Japanese only eat the fish in special restaurants where the Chefs has a special Fugu license, so the know how to prepare it properly.......tried it a couple of times, nothing special and why take the risk !!

I read somewhere that the whole deal about eating fugu is that a skilled chef leaves enough of the poisonous parts attached to just give you a buzz. He leaves too much and you die. He doesn't leave enough, you're left with a bland piece of fish.

The whole fugu experience is about tempting fate, I guess.

"Would you rike to eat speciar fish sir and rook at death right in the face?"

"Fug u!

Ain't married yet huh chef?

I look at death in the face every morning with my head still on the pillow"

Very sad. Perhaps they could set up a company that buys them and then sells them to Japan.

Very sad. Perhaps they could set up a company that buys them and then sells them to Japan.

the people that got sick should inform the police where they ate the fish and have them raided.....

In Japan you have to have a special license to butcher & prepare puffer fish; they're very expensive and considered a delicacy as sushi, sashimi, or shabu. The licensing makes it very unlikely that anyone would suffer poisoning except in cases of very bad luck or very extreme negligence/incompetence.

Crime Suppression Division seize 5000 kg of puffer fish

The Crime Suppression Division has seized over 5,000 kilograms of puffer fish destined to be sold to local restaurants in Samut Songkhram province.

The Commander of the Economic and Technological Crime Suppression Division, Pol. Maj. Gen. Wisut Wanichabuth (วิสุทธิ์ วานิชบุตร), conducted a press conference to report on the arrest of Mr. Sakchai Sridaoruang (ศักดิ์ชัย ศรีดาวเรือง), and Mrs. Nattaya Jaiyen (นาตยา ใจเย็น), on charges of attempting to sell 5,000 kilograms of Puffer Fish, worth over 300,000 baht, in the muang district of Samut Songkhram province. Pol. Maj. Gen. Wisut revealed that only two milligrams of puffer fish meat can result in the death of consumers if ingested, due to the high toxicity of the species.

The King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital, of Chulalongkorn University, reports 130 patients who suffered from puffer fish poisoning this year, with 15 confirmed fatalities. The 2 suspects alleged that they were not attempting to sell the puffer fish but were merely transporting them to a animal food processing factory in the province. The 2 suspects will be charged with violating the Ministry of Public Health's order on dangerous foods, and face 6 months to 2 years of imprisonment, and a fine of 5,000-20,000 baht.

Source: Thai National News Bureau Public Relations Department - 30 August 2007

well, 15 dead over 3 years and not within the last year.

Gen. Wisut, can spare us some of his 'revealings'

Can`t be worse than eating tainted products from China... Their toothpaste has killed 75 in Panama only.

Ever tried Jellied eeals......dear dear..........

Ever tried Jellied eeals......dear dear..........

There was a recent article about those in a Singapore newspaper along with many other tainted Chinese products.

I'll pass.

Can`t be worse than eating tainted products from China... Their toothpaste has killed 75 in Panama only.

Anything coming from China seems to have been dipped in some sort of "Death Juice" before shipping. They do not seem to have any consumer protection, standards of manufacturing; and business ethics at all.

Fruit & veg coming from China into Thailand is allegedly contaminated with illegal pesticides; fungicides; etc.

I liked them better under Communism.

no, the quality of their products do improove and is comparable to the quality of products made in the west - the matter is how much you are willing to pay for your goods.

There are cheapy ones, generally for the local market and for export to poor countries (like thailand or panama) and there are exclusive ones and state of the art technologies for the pockets of westerners.

as to 'communism' than it has never ever existed in china - what was and still is is called 'state capitalism', so production for profit and not to meet peoples needs.