Calls for accurate labelling after radioactive scare in salmon

THE country’s €90m Irish salmon farming industry yesterday urged the government to fully implement EU regulations on food labelling following a radioactive waste scare in the Irish Sea.

Statutory food agencies in Ireland and Britain insisted that the minute traces of technetium-99 which were discovered in Scottish-farmed salmon did not pose any public health threat.

Over 2,000 people are involved in the farm salmon growing sector in Ireland.

The Irish Salmon Growers’ Association (ISGA) said that it welcomed assurances from the Food Safety Authority of Ireland and its British counterpart that consumers faced no health threat following the discovery of extremely low levels of contamination from Sellafield in British-produced salmon.

The ISGA’s executive secretary Richie Flynn said: “Farmed salmon in Ireland is reared only on the west coast and fed from sustainable fish stocks caught mainly by the Donegal fleet.

“There is no danger of any contamination in Ireland’s Atlantic salmon, even the non-threatening levels found in the Scottish-farmed stock,” he said.

However, Mr Flynn said that the Greenpeace-inspired scare should encourage all consumers to be fully aware of the origin of all of their food, particularly fresh produce such as fish.

“The ISGA is again renewing its call to the Government to introduce fully transparent labelling regulations for

retail outlets to assist consumers in making an informed decision on the origin of their fish purchases,” he said.

He said the salmon-growing industry had previously welcomed an EU regulation on the retail labelling of fish to advise consumers on the origin of the product and the manner in which it was reared.

“Unbelievably, despite numerous appeals, the Government has not adopted the EU regulation into Irish law,” he said.

Compared to Norway which farms 500,000 tonnes of salmon and Scotland which farms 150,000 tonnes, the Irish growers’ output is 20,000 tonnes.

Meanwhile, Dr Ian Croudace, the scientist at Southampton University’s oceanography centre which conducted the survey and discovered the traces of a by-product Tc-99, yesterday suggested a Greenpeace press release on the findings was irresponsible.

“They didn’t tell us why they wanted those tests carried out. The worrying thing is that they are maybe using our name to add credibility to their press release, it was a bit mischievous,” said Prof Croudace.

He emphasised that the results of the tests did not constitute a scientific study. “We did not offer any interpretation, we only measured levels,” he said.