Tasty!
Published January 3, 2009 | 
The old Gray Mare She Ain’t What She Used To Be. .
So here’s a tasty tidbit. It seems there were some protests in Hawaii the other day over the practice of gassing fish. Well, after they’re dead of course. Well, after they’re really, really dead. In fact sometimes after they’ve gone off. It seems that if you “treat” dead fish with CO2 the meat keeps that nice fresh plump, red look. Sort of like the meat from your local big box store that has been injected with water to remain looking juicy.
Now the problem with gassed seafood is when it covers the fact that the food has gone bad, something you won’t notice until you’re worshiping over the porcelain bowel or worse yet you find yourself in intensive care. There are reports out there that some folks have died due to the suspected ingestion of gassed fish gone bad. Keep in mind, it’s not easy to avoid either. In fact here in the US it seems to be a fairly common practice to sell C02 treated meet and fish. While some may be labeled (Labels are the answer to everything these days!), it seems labels are not required in all states.
If you’d like to learn more about gassed fish there is a website set up to help you keep informed called surprisingly, Gassed Fish at www.gassedfish.com.
*photo USDA.
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9 Responses to Tasty!
Boy, I don’t know…not sure if this one passes the sniff test.
I looked at the site and it seems pretty hyped. The use of hyperbole always triggers the skeptic in me. Seems like they are trying to be scary by misrepresenting things a little.
Like “deadly carbon monoxide gas”–as far as I know, CO is only dangerous if you breathe it (because, by bonding to hemoglobin, it prevents O2 from being distributed to the cells). But, the site implies that it might be dangerous to eat…
I mean, wouldn’t the carbon monoxide simply bond to the hemoglobin in the blood of the fish? That would make fish with red flesh look redder. I’m not sure that it would do anything to prevent spoilage at all or to somehow make spoiled fish seem fresh…
Makes me want to see the science…
Hey Brian,
yeah I know that site is certainly an “activist” site. But I chose that one because it covered all the basic concepts. However a bit of quick googling can pull up a lot more information. . Here’s one from the Washington Post http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/13/AR2007111302016.html. And of course there is more info out there. IN the end it’s up to each person to make their own choice of course. But I think it’s a good idea that we at least are told.
From What I remember from biology and chemistry classes, carbon MONoxide (CO) is unstable and wants to become carbon DIoxide (CO2) which is more inert. It does this by robbing its surroundings of free oxygen; if you breath it in, it’ll actually suck the oxygen out of your blood which is a double whammy over CO2. CO2 just doesn’t want to give up the oxygen easily, CO takes it from you, turns into CO2, then won’t give it up…what a bully! Also what this means is by the time that fish is hot on your dinner plate, the “deadly CO” has been turned into CO2 and dissipated when it came out of shipping container…no threat and not worth mentioning in the first place. However, CO2 is great for plant growth and dark wet environs are great for fungal growth…sound like river booties in the trunk anyone?
Yeah my understanding is not that they Co2 is harmful, simply that it hides the age or “freshness” of foods.
That Washington Post article is really interesting, especially the pics. Wow–fresh and tasty looking ground beef… yikes!
Yes gassing fish and other meat with carbon monoxide to improve appearance is becoming common practice. Carbon monoxide binds to hemoglobin and myoglobin 200 times stronger than oxygen does, so flesh continues to look red even after it has started to spoil. The only way you’ll be able to tell if it has spoiled in the supermarket is when the plastic wrap on the package starts to inflate from the gas produced by the microorganisms. The sole purpose of carbon monoxide is to improve appearance — it has no preservative function. I sure wouldn’t want my sushi chef to use CO treated fish!
And this is just the tip of the iceberg as far as the evils of meat production goes! Almost 80% of the world’s fisheries are fully- to over-exploited, depleted, or in a state of collapse. Worldwide about 90% of the stocks of large predatory fish stocks are already gone. It takes 2500-5000 gallons of water to produce one pound of beef. 70% of pigs have pneumonia at slaughter, despite routine use of antibiotics to improve growth. Antibiotic-resistant pathogens, including and especially methicillin resistant staph aureus (MRSA) have been detected in several pork farms in North America. Campylobacter and salmonella contamination of chicken and eggs is expected. Although the emergence of toxic Ecoli can be linked to concentrated feeding operations, feeding grain to cows (not their normal food), and production pressures during slaughter, outbreaks are blamed on people not cooking their meat hot or long enough. People need to wake up and see what it is they are really putting on their plates!
http://www.gassedfish.com/images/image14-a.jpg
disgusting captions.
I guess it’s good to know that this is happening, but the editing and self control needs a little work.
hmmm, I wonder if this is a good time to jump in and say I personally don’t eat fish!? I stopped eating fish about 5 years ago now specifically because the fish stocks were being depleted so quickly and I didn’t want to contribute to the problem.
Maybe it is good time to catch our own really fresh fish .
Maybe it is a good time to stop eating pig .Ya think ?