Do You Care Where Your Seafood Comes From?

[marmar]

from Food & Water Watch:




November 19th, 2010
Do You Care Where Your Seafood Comes From?

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The customer is always right. But is the customer always informed? Every day, money is made in this country based on the premise that most consumers don’t care about information pertaining to the products they buy. The imported seafood industry banks on it.

Every year, Americans eat on average 15.8 pounds of seafood, most of which is imported from countries like Vietnam, China, Indonesia, Taiwan and Malaysia. According to an NBC Today Show investigative report, “80 percent of fish and 90 percent of shrimp come from overseas.” The reason this is such a big deal is due to the high percentage of imported seafood that is contaminated with toxins, combined with the fact that the FDA inspects less than 2 percent of all imported seafood. That’s a formula for food safety disaster.



If importing seafood is so risky, then why is it such a big business? Why don’t we buy more domestic seafood, free of the toxins commonly found in many imports? Obviously, seafood companies keep importing these products because it’s cheaper and they can make higher profits. Oh, and they also count on most American consumers not knowing where their food comes from.

John Connelly, president of the National Fisheries Institute — a trade organization representing seafood importers — flat out told NBC reporter Jeff Rossen that consumers don’t care about the source of our food. ............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/2010/11/do-you-care-where-your-seafood-comes-from/