Puffer fish sauce also contains deadly toxins

The latest research results of scientists at Biochemistry Department, Nha Trang Institute of Oceanography confirmed: " Even in fish sauce processed from puffer fish, there are still deadly toxins! ".

Study fish puffer fish sauce
Laboratory (Photo: Labor) Master Dao Viet Ha - Chairman of the project - said: "In the framework of the research topic of Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology, we have used puffer fish orange - is a species that often harvests high yields and many people like to use it - to be a research object, the experiment was conducted within 1 year, applying the method of water grasping by local people and determining toxicity rate from time to time ".

Orange-dot puffer fish is often called striped puffer fish and cotton puffer fish; The scientific name is Torquiener pallimaculatus. The poison is concentrated in eggs, liver, introspection and skin, 100 grams of eggs or skin of orange-dot puffer fish can kill 60-70 people.
Research results show that toxicity tends to decline over time: After 12 months, the toxicity rate decreased by 86.43% - 93.93% compared to the total initial toxicity.

Dr. Dao Viet Ha and his colleagues analyzed: "It is worth noting that after 12 months, in the special conditions of fish sauce processing (very high salinity, acidic or neutral pH), still exist at a certain amount of toxins in the product (6.07% - 13.57%).

In fact, after only 3-4 months from the start of processing, fish sauce products have been produced by the production facilities on the market. According to data collected from this study, the time of the 3rd month was when the toxicity remained about 49.44% - 37.47% compared to the original. Often the virulence of orange-spotted puffer fish in egg-bearing season can reach 5,000MU / gr. Therefore, after 3 months of toxicity, at least about 1,870MU / gr. A normal person, only using 25 - 50ml of this type of fish sauce can be poisoned leading to death ".

On 11.2, Reporter Lao Dong newspaper exchanged this information with some fishermen in Con hamlet, Xuong Huan ward, Nha Trang city. Reportedly, in addition to puffer orange fish, fishermen also use puffer fish, puffer fish . as raw materials (with a rate of 1 ton of fish for 300 liters of fish sauce) and people believe that toxins will be completely destroyed after a few months of making sauce.

Dr. Dao Viet Ha further explained: " When using puffer fish mixed with other fish species, toxicity in fish sauce products may not reach the high value as in this experiment, but that is not the way Food safety: A marine product is only confirmed to be safe when no puffer toxin is found.Please be aware, puffer toxin in the same species has very wide individual variation. In the meantime, there is no accurate data on this issue in Vietnam, so it is impossible to assess the toxicity of puffer fish when used in large quantities to make fish sauce ".