Thursday, February 21, 2013

Escolar and Keriorrhoea


                                                                 Escolar

                    Or yet another reason why I don't eat at fast food places

"A look at seafood sales across the country by ocean conservation group Oceana found that roughly one third of the time, seafood sold at U.S. grocery stores, seafood markets, restaurants and sushi venues had been swapped for species that are cheaper, overfished, or risky to eat. 

 "Out of the 1,215 samples that were eventually tested, 401 were determined to be mislabeled."The two most mislabeled fish, according to Oceana, were snapper (for which 33 different species of fish including rockfish, perch, sea bream and tilapia were substituted) and tuna, which was mostly replaced with escolar - an often-banned snake mackerel that can cause mild to severe gastric distress to those who consume it."                 "Out of the 1,215 samples that were eventually tested, 401 were determined to be mislabeled." The two most mislabeled fish, according to Oceana, were snapper (for which 33 different species of fish including rockfish, perch, sea bream and tilapia were substituted) and tuna, which was mostly replaced with escolar - an often-banned snake mackerel that can cause mild to severe gastric distress to those who consume it.


Escolar is the most controversial fish that you are likely to find in your fish market. This firm, white fleshed fish has an incredibly rich flavor, often described as 'succulent', or a fattier version of swordfish. Why so rich? It turns out that Escolar's diet contains food high in wax esters. Wax esters that are really difficult for Escolar to digest. As a result, these esters build up in the fish.

And from the USDA  FDA Statement on Consumption of Escolar and Oilfish: "There are naturally occurring toxins in some species that do not involve marine algae. Escolar (Scientific Name Lepidocybium flavobrunneum), and its relative Oilfish or Cocco (Scientific Name Ruvettus pretiosus) contains a strong purgative oil, that when consumed can cause diarrhea known as Gempylid Fish Poisoning or Gempylotoxism. FDA advises against the sale of the fish in intrastate/interstate commerce, and requests that seafood manufacturers/processors should inform potential buyers/sellers, etc. of the purgative effect associated with the consumption of these fish.

UPDATE:  Portland did better than the national average with only 21% of the city's fish mislabeled with the exception of it's sushi restaurants which had 63% of their fish not being what they were claimed to be. Sushi restuarants were the worst offenders nation wide. Southpark's City Wok (shitywok) it now turns out, was aptly misnamed.

11 comments:

  1. I think now I will stick with sardines from a tin just to be on the safe side.

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    1. Funny, I just asked the wife to buy some sardines on the next grocery run. Always safer to eat from the bottom of the food chain.

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  2. It is the fault of man-made global warming! The USDA said so!

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    1. Right you are. Starts with over fishing. They have cleaned out the top of the ocean and are working on the deep part. Much of it is turned into animal feed which then causes global warming.

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    2. The USDA? they also tell us that cannabis is as dangerous as heroin. Personally, I think that there are many causes of global warming. They all add up. I'm sure my heating with wood doesn't help much, but Mount Etna has me beat.

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  3. I suppose it could be worse. It could be horse!

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    1. They used to sell it here in the stores when I was a kid.

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    2. We eat cows, sheep, pigs, and most of the wild deer, moose, elk family, so can horse meat really be much different? Or I suppose some might think we are just a few steps away from eating "soylent green"?

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    3. Eastern Oregon has a surplus of wild horses. They used to round them up for human and dog food, and export. In spite of PETA, things may go back to those days. The range has 10 times the number of horses than it can support and they are talking about building a processing plant to deal with the problem. Seems like a logical thing to do to me.
      http://www.oregonlive.com/pacific-northwest-news/index.ssf/2012/03/horse_slaughter_plant_planned.html

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    4. I've no worries about eating horse so long as thats whats on the label. It's no good buying something you think is beef when it turns out to be an old nag!

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  4. Fish smiley-face would give Felix bad dreams.

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