Another carcinogenic toxin found in Hong Kong fish

The government said that tests on samples of saltwater fish sold in Hong
Kong’s markets had traced small amounts of the banned
antibiotic nitrofuran. In small doses nitrofuran is used to treat illnesses
such urinary infections, but larger doses are believed to be dangerous and
potentially carcinogenic.

No cause for alarm
Dr. Mak Sin-ping, controller of
the Centre for Food Safety, a government lab, said the chemical was found in
minute concentrations in samples of pompano, tiger grouper and flowery grouper
fish. “As the levels of nitrofurans detected in the fish samples were low,
normal consumption should not pose any adverse health effects,” Mak said in a
statement. “There is no cause for undue alarm. “We would continue to monitor the
situation closely to protect public health,” she said.

The fish are believed to have been imported from China, the source of the
vast majority of this city’s food. Supplies of freshwater fish from the
mainland, which come under stricter import checks that saltwater fish, have been
halted since samples were found with the cancer-causing industrial dye malachite
green, a banned additive that is nonetheless
found in some farm-fish feed.

Many scares in a few years

The latest fish scare follows many in the past couple
of years that have prompted temporary import bans, mostly concerning the presence of
malachite green. However, chicken eggs recently came under the spotlight after
it was found the carcinogenic Red Sudan dye was being added to some mainland chickens’
feed to produce red egg yolks, seen as a delicacy in China.