I watched a very interesting programme - Indovina chi viene a cena - on the Italian TV on Monday. It made my blood run cold. It covered the use of the chemical ethoxyquin as an additive to fish meal feed to farmed Norwegian salmon. I then decided to look up the internet.

Classified as a harmful substance, banned in the EU and a pesticide since 2011, it is still allowed to be used in animal feed in the EU. Quite a contradiction, since even in small amounts it can affect hormones and have carcinogenic effects and be transmitted to a breast-fed child. It crosses over the blood brain barrier.

The existing European Food Safety Authority report is full of holes (no data on carcinogenetic, long-term effects, fertility, foetal development, neurotoxicity etc.) and it is not planning to commission further research.

The watchdog could not even calculate a recommended intake because of lack of data.

Is it perhaps because fish farming happens to be a multi-million euro business?

Can the Malta Standards Laboratory advise whether tests are made on imported salmon, trout, salmon trout etc.? Does it conduct analysis of the fish feed import for local use? Are tests carried out on the fish prior to being marketed? In the case of fresh mussels and other shell fish does the laboratory test them for toxic substances and the presence of heavy metals?

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