Fish from China

Nikiya

 Due to changes and shortages brought about by the pandemic I have been buying frozen fish. I used to buy frozen haddock fillets at Sainsbury's, which were discontinued. Then I started buying a similar product at Tesco's. A couple of weeks ago Tesco discontinued the product too. Now both supermarkets have come up with new versions of frozen haddock fillets. The package looks similar but there are differences in weight and other details. BOTH ARE PACKED IN CHINA!!! Sainsburys says it is caught in NE Atlantic. Tesco did not specify (and right now they do not seem to have any). Why fish caught in NE Atlantic comes from China? And how safe is it? Does anybody know?

MrsStepford

Firstly, it's the EU which specified that the waters in which the fish/seafood were caught had to appear on the packaging. Now that we have left the EU, supermarkets may not be obliged to  give consumers this information. 
It used to be that it was cheaper to transport fish from Scottish waters to the Qfar East for processing eg shell removal, especially if it then became a ready meal and was transported back. Shipping containers with the right temperature controls can transport all sorts of fresh or frozen products, without deterioration. 

I have noticed changes in Iceland. This sold as Atlantic salmon .. Atlantic salmon is a breed of salmon. It doesn't mean that the fish was caught in the Atlantic. It says Produced in the UK and doesn't specify where it was caught, so may be farmed salmon. 
https://www.iceland.co.uk/p/iceland-2-boneless-atlantic-salmon-fillets-260g/77504.html

This smoked haddock says that it was produced and packed in China. The additives listed are colourants. So not wild. Not even smoked. https://www.iceland.co.uk/p/iceland-4-boneless-smoked-haddock-fillets-460g/56493.html

This wild pink salmon.. wild means nothing. Wild rocket in the supermarket, comes from a farm. Wild pink salmon may be used as the breed, rather than denoting that it was wild-caught. There's no fishing waters listed. It says Produced and Packed in China. Another clue is the exhortation ' Choose sustainable seafood with the MSC blue logo blue fish label to help protect our oceans'.. This could be misleading as the MSC does certify fisheries catching wild fish, eg Hastings. But protecting oceans means fishing less and relying more on aquaculture. https://www.iceland.co.uk/p/iceland-4-boneless-wild-pink-salmon-fillets-480g/66077.html

Most Scottish salmon is farmed. Pretty much all trout too. All those tiger prawns come from farms in Asia. Sea bass 'from the clear Aegean waters' means it's farmed in Greece. Turkey farms a lot of fish too. 

If it gives you a lot of waffle but no actual fishing waters, it ain't wild. Supermarkets are shifting to food outside the EU. Same goes for chicken from Thailand and beef from Brazil. 

So how to make sure you know what you are buying ? For fish, look for the named waters and a code which identifies them. Don't mistake a breed for something wild. It's sleight of hand by the supermarket. It's cheap because it's farmed with huge volume. 

comeandgo

Well it's safe to eat, it's fish.

MrsStepford

Depends whether you want extra formaldehyde and nitrogen with yours I guess. 

Nikiya

MrsStepford said:

 Now that we have left the EU, supermarkets may not be obliged to  give consumers this information. 

I was wondering if Brexit had something to do with it, but thought we were still abiding by their rules until the end of the year

MrsStepford

Nikiya said:

MrsStepford said:

 Now that we have left the EU, supermarkets may not be obliged to  give consumers this information. 

I was wondering if Brexit had something to do with it, but thought we were still abiding by their rules until the end of the year

I think some companies are jumping the gun. I bought some Equal Exchange organic peanut butter from Amazon (no palm oil just peanuts) and the EU green leaf logo has gone. It's replaced with a similar white leaf, with NON-EU ORGANIC underneath. It's weird though because husband bought Peruvian organic avocados from ASDA yesterday (£1 each) and although not an EU country, the avocados had stickers with the green leaf logo. 

pumpkin89

MrsStepford said:

It's weird though because husband bought Peruvian organic avocados from ASDA yesterday (£1 each) and although not an EU country, the avocados had stickers with the green leaf logo. 

The EU has a much stricter definition for "organic" than most of the world.  If it's green leaf, it has been certified as meeting the EU standard by an approved EU organic certification body (e.g. Soil Association) - which can apply to any country of origin.  Likewise there are farms within the EU that don't meet EU organic standard, but could export to the US with "organic" labels as the US organic standard is lower.

parcival

A bit off topic but I am giving a wide berth to all things Chinese - fed up with them!

Farway

parcival said:

A bit off topic but I am giving a wide berth to all things Chinese - fed up with them!

No mobile phone then?

coffeehound

China is dominating fishing like they are with everything else.  They have 2600 'super trawlers' and 200,000 ships in total with heavy government subsidy.  They are apprently wrecking fisheries around the world.  Still:  Every Little Helps.