'Toxic Tuna' report looks at Thailand's 'cannery row'

[webfact]

'Toxic Tuna' report looks at Thailand's 'cannery row'
By Coconuts Bangkok


ABOVE: Tuna piled in the open at a Samut Sakhon packing plant from a scene in a video report by The Daily Telegraph.

BANGKOK: -- A report from The Daily Telegraph alleges questionable sanitary conditions at Thai tuna packing plants.

A team from the Australian publication described “messy” and “smelly” conditions at a plant west of Bangkok in where tuna being investigated for sickening seven people last month at a Sydney cafe reportedly came from.

Australian agriculture officials are testing the tuna, the Monday report says, after seven diners became ill from scombroid food poisoning, which is caused by eating rotten fish.

The plant, operated by Sea Value Group, is in a coastal enclave in Samut Sakhon province where many large exporters operate, including Thai Union Frozen Products, which owns Chicken of the Sea, Bumblebee and other international brands. [read more...]

Full story: http://bangkok.coconuts.co//2015/03/12/toxic-tuna-report-looks-thailands-cannery-row


-- Coconuts Bangkok 2015-03-12

[smedly]

and people wonder why Thai economy is shrinking

[trogers]

The traditional way in food preparation and cooking. It is the style that adds those secret taste and scent.

[NeverSure]

"Cannery Row". I read that Steinbeck book and two other of his books 100 years ago. "Travels with Charley" and another. Someone must be into American Lit.

[Anthony5]

So after the Daily mail, Daily Telegraph will be the next on the blocked websites list.

[NickJ]

"Cannery Row". I read that Steinbeck book and two other of his books 100 years ago. "Travels with Charley" and another. Someone must be into American Lit.

Grapes Of Wrath....East of Eden..........

[NeverSure]

"...including Thai Union Frozen Products, which owns Chicken of the Sea, Bumblebee and other international brands."

I thought Bumble Bee was owned by a British firm, Lion Capital.

[Anthony5]

"...including Thai Union Frozen Products, which owns Chicken of the Sea, Bumblebee and other international brands."

I thought Bumble Bee was owned by a British firm, Lion Capital.

Many foreign companies are of the impression they own the company they set up in Thailand

[heybruce]

"Cannery Row". I read that Steinbeck book and two other of his books 100 years ago. "Travels with Charley" and another. Someone must be into American Lit.

I think the reporter read the title of the Steinbeck book but no further. "Cannery Row" is about the people who occupied a cannery district after the cannery businesses closed.

Edited March 12, 2015 by heybruce

[NextStationBangkok]

I stopped buying canned Tuna, and no more Tuna salad as well!

Let us see what assurance Thai government gives to the consumers.

[toybits]

Haven't they heard of Pla Ra? These Aussies are soooo.....

[Kaalle]

A plant full of fish was "smelly"? Cant believe this, next they will write about rock concerts being noisy.

[shirtless]

Looks like a great setup Thailand is number 1 for quality control,

[seajae]

just look at the fish, they are not fresh but old and lying on the floor, not even in ice bins to keep it fresh, dried skin, shrunken eyes etc, wouldnt feed this to a cat but then what can we expect from a business wanting to make profits, have cut something and it looks like it was the quality and sanitary conditions, this is disgusting

[kblaze]

This is such a BS "investigative report". They spent lots of money to fly a couple journalists to Thailand and expected them to come back with something really damning. Instead we get reports of "smelly and messy" tuna rooms. Imagine that, a fish processing plant that SMELLS! Dear God No!

We get pics of what they call "shanty towns" where the workers live. They look nearly the same as any lower-income Thai housing neighborhood I have ever seen.

The tuna cans are unlabelled until orders arrive...oh the horror!!

The conditions are "Hellish" for workers! Wait, in the interview, the worker says he makes USD400 a month. Thats over Bt13k a month - well over the national average! Dear God he gets only 1 day off a week. Oh wait, thats the norm for 90% of workers in Thailand.

And really that pic of the guy with his head covered...lol...what is the point??

"Packed in like a sardines" yet they dont have a single pic showing anything like that. Me thinks it was just a journalist who realllly wanted to use such a clever headline.

If I were TUF, I'd be sending my lawyers at them pronto. They have absolutely nothing to do with the poisoning, are a completely different company and in fact were completely open with the journalists, answering all their questions. They get clumped in with the bad guys and shown in a horrible light despite having done nothing wrong. HOW DARE THEY BUY A FOOTBALL CLUB.

[Puwa]

"Cannery Row". I read that Steinbeck book and two other of his books 100 years ago. "Travels with Charley" and another. Someone must be into American Lit.

I think the reporter read the title of the Steinbeck book but no further. "Cannery Row" is about the people who occupied a cannery district after the cannery businesses closed.

A better comparison would be Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle," which brought to light appalling sanitary and labor conditions in America's slaughterhouses in the early 20th century.

[Prbkk]

The 2 major australian supermarket chains have been heavily discounting Thai frozen tuna for many months already, expect the discount to deepen

[angiolo]

No flies on this story

[Oziex1]

This is such a BS "investigative report". They spent lots of money to fly a couple journalists to Thailand and expected them to come back with something really damning. Instead we get reports of "smelly and messy" tuna rooms. Imagine that, a fish processing plant that SMELLS! Dear God No!

We get pics of what they call "shanty towns" where the workers live. They look nearly the same as any lower-income Thai housing neighborhood I have ever seen.

The tuna cans are unlabelled until orders arrive...oh the horror!!

The conditions are "Hellish" for workers! Wait, in the interview, the worker says he makes USD400 a month. Thats over Bt13k a month - well over the national average! Dear God he gets only 1 day off a week. Oh wait, thats the norm for 90% of workers in Thailand.

And really that pic of the guy with his head covered...lol...what is the point??

"Packed in like a sardines" yet they dont have a single pic showing anything like that. Me thinks it was just a journalist who realllly wanted to use such a clever headline.

If I were TUF, I'd be sending my lawyers at them pronto. They have absolutely nothing to do with the poisoning, are a completely different company and in fact were completely open with the journalists, answering all their questions. They get clumped in with the bad guys and shown in a horrible light despite having done nothing wrong. HOW DARE THEY BUY A FOOTBALL CLUB.

The story might be pretty poor but it was triggered by food poisoning from these factories. They need to lift their game with food handling and or storage hygiene.

[RT555]

And I wonder why hotels here in Thailand let uninspiring Thais run large hotels here. The food in the last 5-7 years has deteriorated in Bangkok. For what?...To save 1-2k USD per month by not hiring an experienced expat.

[Don Mega]

This is such a BS "investigative report". They spent lots of money to fly a couple journalists to Thailand and expected them to come back with something really damning. Instead we get reports of "smelly and messy" tuna rooms. Imagine that, a fish processing plant that SMELLS! Dear God No!

We get pics of what they call "shanty towns" where the workers live. They look nearly the same as any lower-income Thai housing neighborhood I have ever seen.

The tuna cans are unlabelled until orders arrive...oh the horror!!

The conditions are "Hellish" for workers! Wait, in the interview, the worker says he makes USD400 a month. Thats over Bt13k a month - well over the national average! Dear God he gets only 1 day off a week. Oh wait, thats the norm for 90% of workers in Thailand.

And really that pic of the guy with his head covered...lol...what is the point??

"Packed in like a sardines" yet they dont have a single pic showing anything like that. Me thinks it was just a journalist who realllly wanted to use such a clever headline.

If I were TUF, I'd be sending my lawyers at them pronto. They have absolutely nothing to do with the poisoning, are a completely different company and in fact were completely open with the journalists, answering all their questions. They get clumped in with the bad guys and shown in a horrible light despite having done nothing wrong. HOW DARE THEY BUY A FOOTBALL CLUB.

The story might be pretty poor but it was triggered by food poisoning from these factories. They need to lift their game with food handling and or storage hygiene.

The food poisoning that triggered this was a couple of cases and they all ate at the same cafe in Sydney...

But hey guess what. the Tuna was cleared.

http://www.smh.com.au/national/john-bull-tuna-cleared-of-scombroid-poisoning-20150311-140iq2.html

The NSW Food Authority has found the batch of John Bull Tuna linked to the Soul Origin tuna salad food poisoning scare in Sydney to be safe but found the salad to contain nearly 20 times the safe levels of scombroid histamine.

Scombroid or histamine fish poisoning usually occurs when naturally occurring bacteria in certain species of fish produce an enzyme that converts histidine in the fish to histamine, the NSW Food Authority said.

"The safe threshold is 200mg of histamine per kilogram, the tuna salad had 3950 mg per kilogram," a spokesperson for the authority said.

Food Authority test results released to the importer of John Bull Tuna, Victorian company FTA Food Solutions, said "all cans tested from the batch of John Bull tuna supplied to a Sydney café, where a number of people became ill, are all clear and fit for human consumption".

"It is possible for histamine levels to rise due to cross-contamination with histamine causing micro-organisms after a can is opened," an FTA Food Solutions spokesperson said.

Takeaway outlet Soul Origin used John Bull Tuna, a catering brand not available to the public, in its tuna salad, which caused seven people to fall ill from scombroid poisoning.

Symptoms of poisoning include a peppery taste sensation, tingling of the mouth and lips, a skin rash, headaches, dizziness and itching of the skin. In some cases nausea, vomiting and diarrhoea may also occur.

These symptoms appear within 30 minutes to a few hours of eating the contaminated fish. They last for four to six hours, rarely exceed 24 hours, and can be treated with an antihistamine.

Sydney CBD worker Simone du Toit felt ill about 15 minutes after she ate the tuna salad on February 23.

"I felt flushed, hot and my heart started racing. My skin turned red, including the whites of my eyes. I felt shaky and light headed," she said.

Ms du Toit's health improved in four days after taking steroids.

"Following this incident, we changed suppliers and reissued the NSW Food Authority handling guidelines to all our stores. We serve 40,000 customers each week and our staff are committed to serving the highest quality products," a Soul Origin spokesperson said.

The Food Authority referred the scombroid cases to the Department of Agriculture, which issued holding orders for consignments of tuna and mackerel products from Thailand's I.S.A Value Co Limited, which produces John Bull Tuna.

"Under the holding orders, each consignment of canned tuna and mackerel products will be held in a place to be approved by an authorised officer until it has been inspected, or inspected and analysed, in accordance with the applicable requirements of the Imported Food Inspection Scheme," the department said in a press release.

The department is testing sample cans from each consignment supplied by I.S.A Value Co's factory for histamine.

"There are currently 17 consignments of tuna from the Thai supplier on hold in Australia waiting to be tested, but no test results are available as yet," a department spokesperson said.

FTA Food Solutions has also commissioned a nationally accredited independent laboratory, the Australian Government National Measurement Institute, to undertake independent tests on three different batches of John Ball tuna it currently holds.

"Unopened cans of the same batch of John Bull Tuna in Sunflower Oil used by the café in question, as well as two additional batches, were found to meet stringent quality standards, meaning the tuna was fit for human consumption, and came back well within the food safety requirements," the company said in a press release.

The company said I.S.A Value Co had also conducted tests following the scombroid scare in Sydney and said its products met quality standards.

"We would like to pass on our sympathy to the patrons of the café who have been affected by the recent outbreak and we hope that they have made a full recovery," FTA Food Solutions' director Rob Burgess said.

"We are extremely disappointed with the initial statements and media commentary that indicated John Bull Tuna had high levels of histamine when the test results indicate this is not the case."

"I.S.A Value Co. produces 250 tonnes of canned fish per day from their plant where the tuna is processed in Thailand and has an excellent food safety record."

The Department of Agriculture Import records also indicated I.S.A Value Co's tuna "has had a good history of test compliance and was on the reduced rate of inspection".

Edited March 12, 2015 by Don Mega

[kblaze]

This is such a BS "investigative report". They spent lots of money to fly a couple journalists to Thailand and expected them to come back with something really damning. Instead we get reports of "smelly and messy" tuna rooms. Imagine that, a fish processing plant that SMELLS! Dear God No!

We get pics of what they call "shanty towns" where the workers live. They look nearly the same as any lower-income Thai housing neighborhood I have ever seen.

The tuna cans are unlabelled until orders arrive...oh the horror!!

The conditions are "Hellish" for workers! Wait, in the interview, the worker says he makes USD400 a month. Thats over Bt13k a month - well over the national average! Dear God he gets only 1 day off a week. Oh wait, thats the norm for 90% of workers in Thailand.

And really that pic of the guy with his head covered...lol...what is the point??

"Packed in like a sardines" yet they dont have a single pic showing anything like that. Me thinks it was just a journalist who realllly wanted to use such a clever headline.

If I were TUF, I'd be sending my lawyers at them pronto. They have absolutely nothing to do with the poisoning, are a completely different company and in fact were completely open with the journalists, answering all their questions. They get clumped in with the bad guys and shown in a horrible light despite having done nothing wrong. HOW DARE THEY BUY A FOOTBALL CLUB.

The story might be pretty poor but it was triggered by food poisoning from these factories. They need to lift their game with food handling and or storage hygiene.

You are missing the point - it was the ISA Value Co Ltd who was at fault. TUF is being thrown under the bus for no reason.

[bassman]

I eat Thai tuna all the time, while in the USA bumble bee and chicken of the sea were always my favorites. Never recall being sick from eating their products. Seven diners becoming sick out of the billions of cans of tuna that are packed by this corporation, an insignificant number.

Maybe they should look closer at the restaurants where these products were served, out of the can tuna can does age fast and requires a short shelf life when opened. Particularly when mixed in a salad.

In all our developed countries there are always recalls and many cases of food poisoning on all canned products as well as fresh products.

[Daniel Ingalls]

...........Sorry "Charley"........your not good enough for our cannery!......go try Bumble Bee, or Chicken of the Sea

Edited March 12, 2015 by Daniel Ingalls

[Sviss Geez]

just look at the fish, they are not fresh but old and lying on the floor, not even in ice bins to keep it fresh, dried skin, shrunken eyes etc, wouldnt feed this to a cat but then what can we expect from a business wanting to make profits, have cut something and it looks like it was the quality and sanitary conditions, this is disgusting

Yes, just look at it, but look at it properly, with your specs on.

This is probably fish that has been dumped, not fish that is about to be processed, as it all seems to be in plastic bags and it is outside the plant. It's very unlikely that a wholesaler would be supplying fish in those bags.

[CosmicSurfer]

I have been in many tuna canning factories in Thailand.... Never was I in one that was "Smelly"....
But, look hard enough, and yee shall find!

CS

Edited March 12, 2015 by CosmicSurfer

[DogNo1]

In Japan, tuna is carefully kept frozen or refrigerated until it is served. It would be nice if the tuna canneries here could afford the same amount of refrigeration until the tuna is served or canned.

BTW, Cannery Row in Monterey, CA was a desolate place during the 60's and early 70's. Now it's crammed with high-end restaurants and shops with the Monterey Bay Aquarium being an attraction at one end of the row. Monterey itself has undergone a huge population surge and is no longer the laid back place that it was in the 60's. Back then, the road over to Carmel and streets in Monterey had very few cars on them after 8:00 PM. How times have changed the city!

Of course, back in the 40's and 50's working conditions in the sardine canneries were pretty bad. It would be interesting to compare the operation of the canneries then with the operation of the Thai canneries now. I'll bet they would be similar!

[halloween]

The Daily Telegraph is a sensationalist rag for the semi-literate and new immigrants with a limited English vocabulary. It actually used to increase in value when used as a fish and chip wrapper but that practice has been discontinued, and the drop in price of toilet tissue has removed the last possible reason to buy it.

[gchurch259]

A plant full of fish was "smelly"? Cant believe this, next they will write about rock concerts being noisy.

They are too noisy, but I guess you like that sort of thing you get use to it. What I hate is when you go to a restaurant and it sounds like you are at a Concert/Disco. I also never understood why such loud music was required to enjoy a brew in a bar or GoGo Bar 90 plus decibels is required.

Hell, you can not even enjoy a game of pool at most locations due to noise.

HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH BAD FISH, but I feel better !!

[bendejo]

Hanging around Ranong has caused me to wonder about the cleanliness of whatever seafood products they package there.

Last I heard most of the canned tuna in the US came from the Pacific islands. These days in the US the frozen shrimp (prawns) come from either Thailand or Bangladesh.