Fish from farms
The export rate says a good deal about the quality of the fish as well as the safety of consuming it, but here in Malta there is persistent prejudice against fish that are farmed rather than caught in the wild, even though every other creature we eat comes from farms.
Malta’s aquaculture operations depend mainly on the coastal pens dotted along the south-east and north-west parts of the main island. They are often blamed for marine pollution, but while much of the anger of environment groups focuses on seawater quality, there is surprisingly little debate and information about the quality of farmed fish.
Farmed fish are exposed to the possibility of contamination by marine pollutants. It takes about 15 months for a fish to reach market size on commercial farms, giving it plenty of time to absorb anything that might be floating around in the sea. That unappetising thought deserves closer consideration. Generally, the quality of a farmed product depends greatly on the standards of production. We usually tend to be sceptical of the reliability of Maltese produce, suspecting that production and quality standards may be shaky or altogether absent. In the case of fish farming, this suspicion is completely unfounded. According to an annual report of the Malta Centre for Fisheries Science, a national institution, “all on-growing sea bass and sea bream farms are EU approved”. There’s comfort to be had in that statement. EU quality standards are notoriously pedantic and nothing short of rigorous. This certification is required because most of the bass and sea-bream farmed in Malta is sold to supermarket chains and food distributors within the European Union – and this even before Malta joined the economic bloc.
The same report makes it clear that Malta’s fish farms hold HACCP (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point) certification. This control system, partly developed and promoted by the World Health Organisation, is the universally recognised and accepted method of assuring food safety. On HACCP-certified farms, production methods are food safe. Significantly, HACCP puts the responsibility for the safety of aquaculture products on the aquaculture sector itself. In simple words, fish farms are obliged to make sure that the fish they supply are safe for consumption, which means that their production methods have to be in line with good aquaculture practice.
HACCP permits the identification of hazards and risks associated with the production, distribution and use of aquatic foods. The distinction between hazard and risk in relation to food contaminants is important. A hazardous substance must be present in sufficient quantities in a particular food for it to be considered a risk to humans. Take the example of chemical disinfectant. This is normally used to clean the equipment that holds fish when sea pens are being restocked. Chemical disinfectant is hazardous, but in terms of food safety it is not risky because it is washed away, or decomposes, before the equipment is used.
Similarly, methyl-mercury is hazardous to humans, but it is only risky if an edible fish accumulates enough of it and then ends up on your plate. In this case, eating farmed fish is no more risky than eating fish caught in the wild, and may actually be safer. Wild fish hunt down their own food and one never knows what they might have eaten. In aquaculture, the fish are fed by the farmer, who controls the food quality and amounts given. In a report on aquaculture and food safety, the World Health Organisation points out that the mercury content is low to non-existent in the formulated diet of farmed fish. In Malta, all farmed bream and bass are fed a formulated diet. Since mercury accumulates over a fish’s lifetime, the less a fish takes in with its food, the less accumulates in its tissues. Equally, the younger a fish is – and farmed fish are usually harvested when uniformly young – the less mercury it is likely to contain.
Fish are totally dependent on the water they live in. Their liquid environment enables them to breathe, feed, grow, excrete waste and maintain an internal chemical balance. To a great extent, the physical and chemical quality of the water surrounding them is critical to the success of an aquaculture operation, giving new meaning to the trite Maltese saying of not muddying the waters you drink from. If the quality of the surrounding seawater is poor, the quality of the harvest is likely to be poor, and if the surrounding seawater were unsafe, the farmed fish would be unfit for human consumption. It is in the very interest of fish-farms that the surrounding waters be kept clean and unpolluted.
One farm in the north of Malta, which farms bream and bass, exports almost 900 tonnes of fish each year to major supermarket chains and cold-food stores in EU countries. The farm maintains strict quality control to meet the stringent requirements imposed by the EU. Marine life proliferates below and around its fish pens, an indication of favourable water conditions. That casual evidence is insufficient, however, so the seawater quality is also monitored scientifically and regularly, giving reassuring results.
Perhaps the most important advantage of fish farms over open-sea fishing is that on farms the development of fish can be controlled. If farming practices are judged to be unpalatable, public pressure can force change. The same cannot be said of fish caught in the open seas.
Fish facts
- Eating a variety of fish helps reduce the risk of overexposure to any one toxin.
- Fish contains less cholesterol and fat than lean meat.
- Worldwide, fish is the most widely consumed animal protein.
- Fish is an excellent protein source for those who wish to lose weight by cutting down on meat.