Catching On to the Hazards of Fish

It is a genuine nutritional irony: Americans intent on eating a healthier, low-fat diet are consuming ever-increasing amounts of seafood. In the process, they are exposing themselves to greater risk of illness, or even death, from food-borne contamination. That is an unacceptable contradiction, and it will not be resolved until the current chaos in the sea-food industry is replaced with clear, well-enforced federal regulations.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) estimates that 64,230 Americans became ill from eating tainted seafood last year, while 22 died. During its most recent reporting period, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) found that the number of food-induced illnesses attributable to bad fish or shellfish exceeded the total number traced to beef and poultry.

That is striking because Americans consume more than four times as much beef and three times as much poultry as they do seafood.

To some degree, this high level of risk results from the fact that most seafood is harvested in the wild, where bacterial and chemical contamination cannot easily be controlled. More important, seafood remains the only important food source sold to consumer without rigorous, mandatory government standards or inspections.

Such standards currently are enforced in the meat and poultry industries by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. To ensure compliance with its regulations, the department deploys a force of 10,000 inspectors to make daily visits to meat and poultry processing plants.

By contrast, the FDA, which currently has responsibility for enforcing the minimal safety, cleanliness and labeling regulations that do exist for seafood, has 510 inspectors to oversee an estimated 60,000 firms. As a result, facilities processing fish and shellfish are inspected about once every four years. Of the 4 billion pounds of seafood consumed in this country every year, the FDA tests only about 2,000 samples for contamination. The situation is further complicated by the fact that 60% of America’s seafood is imported from abroad.

At the moment, Congress is considering nine different measures that would strengthen regulation of the seafood industry, tighten inspections and decide which federal agency should oversee the program.

It is essential that the law that finally emerges rely on mandatory rather than voluntary standards. It also should include federal certification of fishing boats, processing plants and distributors, as well as clear standards on chemical and microbiological toxin levels and adequate inspections to enforce them.

Canada, Japan and the Netherlands have such laws; Americans deserve no less.