Pangasius fillets. (Photo: SeafoodfromVietnam)
Italian supermarkets stop selling pangasius
ITALY
Wednesday, February 01, 2017, 02:40 (GMT + 9)
Italian supermarkets have decided to stop selling pangasius fish, due to concerns regarding the high level of contamination existing in aquaculture farms, where this fish is produced.
Retailers such as Esselunga have already banned sales, and Coop has excluded pangasius from its private label assortment, Italian daily Il Messaggero reported.
In fact, Esselunga group clarified that, by company policy, it has never wanted to market pangasius at its points of sale, whether fresh, frozen or as an ingredient.
Carrefour’s Italian branch is expected to join the move after ceasing sales in France and Belgium, warning that “the pangasius farms have a high environmental impact”. The chain assured that once stocks of this species are depleted, this fish will no longer be sold.
In addition, according to the Italian daily, the region of Emilia-Romagna intends to remove pangasius from the school menus, and replace it with blue fish from the Adriatic Sea.
The fish became popular because of low breeding costs, high productivity (rapid growth) and high yield (little waste and a lot of meat). Even, at times, it is passed off as other, more valuable fish species.
Most of the commercialized panga on the international market comes from farms located in the Mekong Delta in Vientam as well as in Thailand, Cambodia and Laos, but there is a strong controversy over the sanitary conditions under which the fish is farmed in those Asian countries.
Related article:
- Carrefour stops selling pangasius
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