Fan-FUGU-tastic...Puffer fish sold as salmon kills 15, sickens 115

[Amerigo Vespucci]

Puffer fish sold as salmon kills 15, sickens 115
Deadly meat sold in large quantities in Thailand despite ban, doctor says

Updated: 1:35 a.m. PT Aug 23, 2007

BANGKOK, Thailand - Unscrupulous vendors in Thailand have been selling meat of the deadly puffer fish disguised as salmon, causing the deaths of more than 15 people over the past three years, a doctor said Thursday.

Although banned since 2002, puffer fish continues to be sold in large quantities at local markets and restaurants, said Narin Hiransuthikul of Bangkok’s Chulalonkorn University Hospital.

“Some sellers dye the meat of puffer fish and make it look like salmon which is very dangerous,” Narin said. Narin said over the past three years more than 15 people have died and about 115 were hospitalized from eating the fish.

The ovaries, liver and intestines of the puffer fish contain tetrodotoxin, a poison so potent that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration says it can “produce rapid and violent death.” The fish is called fugu in Japan, where it is consumed by thrill-seeking Japanese gourmets for whom the risk of poisoning adds piquancy.

[DS1]

1. rapid and violent death?

cool!

[baldguy]

2. And this is why we have government regulations.

People that don't want regulations want shit like this to happen every day here in America.

[Kajsa]

3. Isn't that the truth?

Those nimrods love to lament about how
we are becoming a "Nanny State".

What an idiotic name for public safety.

Idiots!

:puke:

[bullwinkle428]

4. This seems bizarre - I thought puffer fish was extremely expensive,

so it doesn't really make sense that they would try to pass it off as relatively inexpensive salmon. Maybe the high price of the puffer fish comes from the fact that only a few, highly trained chefs are capable of preparing it for human consumption? :shrug: