Here's Why

Cigatera update

I wanted to find out about the risk of Ciguatera poisoning from skipjack tuna oil used to supplement Omega-3 DHA bread and other flour products, so I contacted George Weston Foods.

George Weston Foods are one of Australia’s largest food manufacturers, responsible for popular brands in bread and baked goods, dairy, meat, cereals and animal feed. They are wholly owned by Associated British Foods, who operate in New Zealand, the United States, the United Kingdom, South Africa and Thailand.

I was assured “Fish effected by Ciguatera Poisoning are usually fish that feed in warm ocean
waters such as a reef. The tuna used in our product is caught using large fishing trawlers in the deep ocean and therefore poses a minimal risk of carrying the toxin.” However, their tuna suppliers test for Ciguatera every three months. I figure this is to account for the fact that fish swim. Predatory fish swim over large distances.

Testing once every three months obviously isn’t safe enough, or I wouldn’t have been poisoned. Ciguatera is very under-reported, in fact it took 18 months for me to be diagnosed. Many other people may be affected and not know what hit them.

What are the regulations for testing? I’m waiting on a reply from Food Standards Australia to find out whether there are any regulations for Ciguatera toxin testing in place.

About the author: Ian Woolf lives in Sydney, has a degree in Applied Physics, worked as a solar astronomer, software engineer, systems programmer, webmaster, Cisco CCNA tutor, Computational Theory lecturer, and subject coordinator; while changing his career to professional writing and broadcasting. Listen to Ian on the Discovery science show on radio 2SER 107.3Fm Mondays at 9am in Sydney or streaming audio on www.2ser.com, or listen to the Discovery sound archives.