FSA say salmon toxin levels 'within safe limits'

A scare over farmed Scottish salmon caused by a US report published in Science magazine warning that the fish are contaminated with toxic chemicals, has been challenged by the UK Food Standards Agency (FSA).

The UK agency said that the levels of toxins are within accepted guidelines and the industry body, Scottish Quality Salmon, has branded the US report as "misleading".

The FSA said that the levels of dioxins and PCBs found in this study are in line with those that have previously been found by in tests conducted for the agency. The FSA noted that these are within current safety levels set by both the World Health Organisation and the European Commission and that the study did not raise any new food safety concerns and that this applied to all salmon; farmed and wild, Scottish and imported.

FSA chairman Sir John Krebs said: "This study shows that the levels of dioxins and PCBs in salmon are within internationally recognised safety limits and confirms previous studies by the FSA."

Sir John said he recognised that while they remain a consumer concern, dioxin levels had decreased dramatically over the past two decades.

"We advise that the known benefits of eating one portion of oily fish outweigh any possible risks. Last year we asked a group of experts to advise on the balance of risks and benefits of eating more than this regularly over a lifetime and they will report later this year," he said.

FSA figures indicate that on average people in the UK eat one-quarter of a portion of oily fish a week. Sir John said people should consume at least two portions of fish a week, one of which should be oily like salmon.

"There is good evidence that eating oily fish reduces the risk of death from recurrent heart attacks and that there is a similar effect in relation to first heart attacks," he said.

However, the US report recommended that no more than two ounces of Scottish farmed salmon should be consumed a month. Defending the report, the lead scientist Professor Ronald Hites, from the University of Indiana School of Public and Environmental Affairs, said he thought it was "important for people who eat salmon to know that farmed salmon have higher levels of toxins than wild salmon from the open ocean".

However, Scottish Quality Salmon technical consultant Dr John Webster said that the research appeared to be "deliberately misleading in the advice it gives on farmed salmon consumption" and ignored "all the health benefits of regular farmed salmon consumption as reported in over 5,000 scientific studies".

He maintained that PCB and dioxin levels in Scottish salmon were "significantly lower" than the thresholds set by international food standards watchdogs in the EU, the UK and the US.

(SP)