Kerala: Fishy' trend grips markets

KOZHIKODE: Chemically treated  fish arriving from Tamil Nadu and Karnataka is widely sold across the state, according to  industry sources. The officials of Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) say that about a third of the fish available in the state comes from other South Indian states.  Chemicals are used on a  substantial quantity of the fish by traders to increase their shelf-life.

The issue came to light when an incident of boiling fish curry was reported from Muvattupuzha the other day. The officials opined that the fish, especially oil sardines (chaala) and mackerel, was contaminated with ammonium chloride (navasaaram), as they have a short shelf-life. FSSAI assistant commissioner P.K. Aleyamma said, “we are trying to collect samples from the fish markets in and around the district and those coming  in loads.”  

These will be sent to Ernakulam for further examination. It is believed that fish is sprinkled with or dipped in a solution of ammonium chloride, hydrogen peroxide and formalin. However,  the municipal corporation is helpless due to the lack of legal provisions to test the chemicals in fishes and  take action against the traders. Corporation Health Standing Committee chairman K.V. Baburaj said that the corporation had forwarded the complaint to the FSSAI.

“Fish is an inevitable part of the diet of a Malayali  and eating contaminated fish can cause serious health issues,” he said and  added that earlier it was reported that big fishes were more contaminated with chemicals.  “But now we are unable to eat even the small ones,” he said. “We are in no way responsible for the quality of fish sold in our markets as they come  in bulk  from other states,”  said Muhammed Anwar, fish vendor at Central Market here.  “The  food safety officials  must check  whether the fish is injected with chemicals. But  no such malpractice will occur once the fish  is  brought to our centres,” he added.

Fuming fish curry springs surprise again

The boiling fish curry has started causing unease among the people of the state these days.  A few days ago, the fish curry cooked in a house at  Muvattupuzha kept on boiling even after it was removed from the stove.  Now   a second similar incident  has occurred in Kozhikode. The mackerel curry cooked in  the house of Pettooli Lavan residing near Mukkom continued to boil  and produce  fumes forcing the inmates to call the neighbours and food safety officials.

The  officials, who visited Lavan’s house,  collected the samples of the  curry, including from the neighbourhood. “The fish was bought from a market at Mukkom and my wife prepared the curry on the same day. We consumed it with chapathi along with our kids. But we did not experience any change in taste.
When the curry started producing fumes and kept on boiling we were surprised and called  our neighbours.     Later, we reported it to the food safety officials,” he said.

According to officials, the strange phenomenon could be due to the chemical used to preserve the fish that are largely brought from other states like Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.  “A  chemical reaction  is produced when the ingredients of the curry and the contaminated fish come into contact,”  opined Food Safety and Standards Authority of India assistant commissioner P.K. Aleyamma.   “We have collected the samples which will be submitted to the Regional Analytical Laboratory, Kakkanad,  for detailed examination,” she added.