Contaminants in the Environment
Minute levels of contaminants are present in all foods as a result of global industrial processes, but these levels have fallen by between 50% and 75% over the past 10 years and will continue to fall as national and international measures to reduce impact take effect.
"Dioxins are present in many foods because they accumulate in fats and oil, and they are widespread in the environment. Levels are going down because their production as a by-product of heavy industry is diminishing. Since 1997 average adult intake of dioxins from food has halved."
Sir John Krebs, Chairman of the Food Standards Agency
Research published in Science in January (2004) appeared to be deliberately misleading in the advice it gave on farmed salmon consumption. In advising how much salmon should be eaten the study ignored all the health benefits of regular oily fish consumption, such as farmed salmon, as reported in over 5,000 scientific studies.
In reaching the conclusions about limiting salmon consumption, the study’s authors seem to have misapplied an already suspect risk model developed by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). According to the Food Standards Agency (FSA) (link to http://www.food.gov.uk/multimedia/faq/salmon080104/), the EPA process "is not recognised by international organisations responsible for food safety and public health who consider it scientifically flawed."
Put in context, FSA statistics show that the average dietary exposure to dioxins and PCBs through all fish is way behind that of milk, dairy products and meat.
AVERAGE EXPOSURE TO DIOXINS AND PCBs
FROM FOODS IN THE UK DIET
Source: http://www.food.gov.uk/news/pressreleases/pcbsanddioxins
Though the recurring theme in the media is to treat the salmon farming industry as an antagonist, the FSA point out that PCBs and dioxins can be detected in all foods and even at the highest levels found in food dioxins do not have an immediate effect on health. Instead, the FSA considers that the proven health benefits of a balanced diet outweigh any possible risks from dioxins and PCBs in food.
Scottish Farmed Salmon is considerably under the EU thresholds. The industry supports every initiative to deal with the further reduction across all parts of the food chain. Indeed, it has gone beyond this and has taken steps to maximise levels of beneficial omega-3 essential fatty acids and minimise contaminant levels yet further.
"I think the health benefits of eating oily fish like farmed Scottish salmon greatly outweigh the risks."
Professor Hugh Pennington, Scottish advisory committee to the Food Standards Agency
Code of Good Practice for Scottish Finfish Aquaculture (CoGP) CoGP Working Group |
Review and Synthesis of the Environmental Impacts of Aquaculture Scottish Association for Marine Science and Napier University in association with Scottish Executive >> link 2002 |
Establishing a fish farm Fisheries Research Services, Scottish Executive >> link |