Evert:
To my knowledge there are several methods of applying CO to Tilapia / Tilapia fillets:
1. on the live fish, bubbling in industrial CO in live fish holding tanks, killing the fish by asphyxation
2. on the fillets by packing several kilos of fresh fillets in large poly bags and fill the bags up with industrial CO and leave it for several hours.
3. inject the CO in previously vacuumized baggies, leave it for some time and suck out the excess CO again
The latter method is the most sophisticated and most controlled method, making CO residue detection in labs rather difficult.
In my view: it is a bloody shame to adulterate such an all natural product in such a bad manner as this can damage the image of Tilapia as a wholesome seafood item if nothing is done to ban the use of CO ( as has been already done in Japan, Korea, Canada etc. ) FDA and the EU are ( still ) very tolerant in this respect ........... a matter of time ? Hopefully !
Freek
----- Original Message -----
From: Evert Liewes
To: seafood@ucdavis.edu
Sent: Tuesday, February 19, 2002 4:12 PM
Subject: CO gas treatment of Tuna loins and Tilapia fillets
In the seafood archives I found some emails about earlier discussions on this subject of CO (march 1999, log 9902).
It is right that in the EU it is not allowed to use CO as an additive to fish products. However at present there are considerable imports of so called "cold smoked" tuna loins and tilapia fillets (China - Taiwan) which are exposed to CO.
The food authorities in The Netherlands did not agree to this treatment, but did not come into action as they were not sure of winning a case against the method of addding CO in a so called "cold smoking" process.
Does anybody know how this the "smoked" tuna loins and tilapia fillets are treated to get this nice red colour and is it really a kind of smoking process?
What is legal position the marketing of CO treated fish products at present in other EU countries and in the USA?
Does anyone use CO for the killing of fish and is this allowed? Does this also leave fillets with a more red and lasting colour?
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