Fish news

Fish consumption is up

The future is looking bright for fish on the menu. Figures from the National Food Survey show that consumption of seafood rose by 16% in the first three months of this year compared with the same period last year.

Further evidence of a rise in the popularity of fish in restaurants has come from the Taylor Nelson Mealtrack survey, which says that in the past year the number of fish meals served in pub-restaurants has risen by 4% to 36,704. The biggest growth for an individual fish product is in the consumption of haddock, up 24%, followed by tuna, up 21%.

In hotels, the number of fish meals eaten in the past year has gone up by 12% to 9,453 meals, with haddock and tuna again showing the biggest percentage growth, though salmon remains the most widely eaten fish in catering.

Yet all is not roses for either salmon or tuna. The US state of Massachusetts has issued a consumer warning on canned tuna because of concerns about the level of mercury being found in some samples. They are recommending that children under 12 and nursing and pregnant mothers should not eat tuna at all and that other consumers should eat no more than 12oz per week, the equivalent of two servings.

Closer to home, scientists from the UK Government's Veterinary Medicines Directorate are to launch an investigation after routine tests of farmed salmon muscle found traces of the banned pesticide Invermectin, used to kill parasitic sea lice which grow on farmed salmon. The ban on the pesticide came into force in the UK three years ago.

In a separate incident, two Scottish salmon farm owners are to appear in court in the Shetland Islands later this month after Invermectin residues were found in their fish last year.

Sea urchins Sea urchin availability is set to expand rapidly in the next year. Although seldom used by UK chefs, the roe from the spiky-shelled sea urchins is very popular in mainland Europe. Sea urchins are naturally prolific in the west of Scotland, but are too small to market. Salmon farmers have now discovered that captive sea urchins fed on salmon-feed pellets grow faster and bigger, and one Scottish farm is forecasting production of 100,000 sea urchins by the end of next year.