The Hindu Business Line : The sea hath fish for every man

POST tsunami, seafood has disappeared from restaurant menus in Sri Lanka, because reports say that people are afraid that any fish caught would have feasted on corpses. While such a fear may prevail on Indian coasts too, the Department of Fisheries has clarified that there is no marine pollution and, therefore, no harm in consuming seafood. There is even some hope that the upsurge in the waters can lead to a surge in fish production.

Be that as it may, about a week before tsunami, `fish and fish products' got added into the Prevention of Food Adulteration Rules through an amendment. "The sea hath fish for every man," said William Camden, and the Notification has a definition for every fish product. Thus, frozen shrimp or prawn has to be from "fresh shrimps of sound quality belonging to Penaeidae, Pandalidae crangonidae, Palaeomonidae solenoceridae, Aristeidae and Sergestidae families."

Permitted families for lobsters are Nephropidae, Palinuridae and Scyllaride; and for squid, Loliginidae, Ommastrephidae, Onychoteuthidae and Thysanotenthidae. Frozen finfish is defined as "product prepared from fresh fish of good quality" and it may be "with or without head from which viscera or other organs have been completely or partially removed." If you're not wincing, let me tell you that minced fish is different; it consists of "particles of skeletal muscle, and is free from bones, viscera and skin."

On the freezing process, there is a stipulation in the Rules that the products should be frozen "in an appropriate equipment" and that must be `quickly', to minus 18 degrees Celsius or colder. Important to note, "the product shall be kept deep frozen so as to maintain the quality during transportation, storage and sale," and processing and packaging should ensure "minimum dehydration and oxidation."

You may not like a live shark in your kitchen, but know that `dried shark fins' are defined as "product prepared from dorsal and pectoral fins, lower lobe of caudal fin and pelvic from fresh shark of edible quality." Salted fish can be "bled, gutted, beheaded, split or filleted and washed." For canned shrimp, there is a detailed description that may compare to a brief culinary course, after specifying that the product shall have no heads, shell and antenna: "The product may be in the form of peeled shrimps which have been headed and peeled without removal of the dorsal tract, or cleaned and de-veined shrimps in which the back is cut open after peeling the dorsal tract has been removed up to the last segment next to the tail, or broken shrimps consisting of pieces of peeled shrimp of less than four segments with or without the vein removed."

When canning sardines, ensure that they are "free from head and gills," and also "free from scales and/or tail." On container to be used, the Rules insist that it should be free from "rust and mechanical defects." Also, it should not show "any change on incubation at 37 degrees Celsius for 7 days." There is a prescribed "microbiological requirement" and also the condition that the products should be free from "any foreign matter and objectionable odour/ flavour."

However, when one sees the frozen packets of fish products beneath glasses in the freezers of supermarkets, with a trademark stench in the aisle, a legitimate doubt that could arise is whether transportation was done in ideal conditions.

ExParte@TheHindu.co.in

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