Catfish in the news again

[ComputerGuy]

Looks like the catfish wars are just heating up. Catfish is a huge export business in Vietnam: the U.S. received 250 million pounds in 2012. Now there is a new inspection program for catfish at the DoA that Vietnam says is just a thinly-veiled trade barrier.

A lot of restaurants here sell catfish, referring to is as basa, and sometimes it has a dusty taste (discussed in other threads here before) which comes from a chemical used during the "farming" process. People general mistake this taste as meaning "bad" fish, or bottom-feeder taste... even though shrimp, crab, halibut, sole, snails, bass and others eat the same way.

Anyway, this new policy is bound to stir up the discussion and I imagine we will end up paying higher prices, too. Here's an article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/14/us/politics/second-catfish-inspection-program-by-us-complicates-pacific-trade-pact.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20131114&_r=0

[rogerm]

Buy your catfish from a catfish farm in the United States you wont have the smell problem.

[More Liana]

We eat and really enjoy basa de nilo (the fish's full name here in Mexico). The boneless filets, sold frozen, are sweet and inexpensive. I've never experienced it tasting like dirt.

[gringal]

The only fish I'm eating these days is at Tabarka, where they give the fish it's proper moniker and where it's fresh, healthful and very tasty.

They used to have a pretty good frozen tilapia from Chile at Costco, but it's been unavailable lately.

[Fox]

I will stick to my fresh caught Dorado! I made many friends this year, after my return from fishing in the PV area, and sharing my catch.

Fox

[Wookie]

All you can eat catfish at Bubba's is hard to beat.

[ComputerGuy]

First of all, there is no such thing as "fresh" catfish unless you live along the Mekong Delta or near a catfish farm, or you like to dip your toes in a river where they run. So that is to say, no fresh catfish arrives here, ever. Not at the abastos, or the Guad outdoor fish markets... nowhere. It comes in frozen. It has to, like most fish that isn't native. That doesn't mean there is anything wrong with frozen, of course.

Secondly, since they use exactly the same chemicals at U.S. catfish farms as they do everywhere else, and they overpopulate their resources, I don't believe for a second that buying from the U.S. means a darn bit of difference. And it is not a smell problem. It is a taste issue.

[camillenparadise]

OK, moving away from basa, where in Mexico can one buy LIVE blue crab?

[ComputerGuy]

I've seen the phrase basa de nilo on packages of frozen fish at WalMart, but I can't find any reference to that full name on the Weeb... other than various Spanish webboards asking what it is. Usually couple with blanco del nilo and other terms.

[Chapala Man]

We eat and really enjoy basa de nilo (the fish's full name here in Mexico). The boneless filets, sold frozen, are sweet and inexpensive. I've never experienced it tasting like dirt.

I thought Catfish in Spanish was BAGRE.

[ComputerGuy]

I thought Catfish in Spanish was BAGRE.

Good point. Basa seems to be an English, far-reaching derivative of some usage of the word, which has carried over onto packaging labels and into the consciousness in Mexico, anyway. I can't find an origin for it. But I've never heard bagre used, myself. I'll check at Pacifico next time for their take.

[cbviajero]

I thought Catfish in Spanish was BAGRE.

I've always heard catfish called bagre in Mexico.

[RVGRINGO]

West of Ajijic, you might spot the sign offering BAGRE.

[ComputerGuy]

Would that be that place that seems to be a fish farm of sorts? I was asking around in the Mexican community today, and some guys who really like to fish say the same thing: all the waiters call any white fish basa, a lot of the gringos think it means bass when told that, and none of these guys have heard a definitive answer.

However, we massively digress: I guess no one cares about the article itself, eh?

PS RVG: Your memory is far too good. Really annoying.

[More Liana]

I thought Catfish in Spanish was BAGRE.

It is, of course. But IMHO the use of the name basa de nilo is a marketing tool, not a translation of catfish. Sounds much more exotic!

[Carnivore]

http://talk.onevietnam.org/cause-of-death-consumption-of-basa-fish/

http://www.fao.org/home/en/

If you don't care what you eat then just go ahead and eat BASA but fully realize that you're eating fish that comes from one of the most polluted rivers in the world - The Mekong. Yes the fish may be raised in ponds but the water will still be pumped from the Mekong and the fish in these heavily crowded ponds will be swimming in their own waste. The fish may look good because it's white but just take the time to do a little research and carefully read what you find. Yes, I've had owners tell me here that the fish we were served was "Sea Bass" and I think they possibly believed it themselves but on one occasion we had a waiter tell us that the fish was NOT Sea Bass and what they were serving could be purchased at Walmart and also upstairs at the central maket on the square in Chapala.

[El Saltos]

Even Sea Bass isn't sea bass but usually Patagonian Toothfish. As for "Basa," it's actually a member of the catfish family which is native to the Mekong river.

[snowyco]

If you suspect vietnamese basa in Mexico may have heavy metal contamination, official government measurements of contaminats show that basa and catfish are not the problem. Instead, we can depend on tuna and other predatory fish having mercury. National Geographic tells us:

"Samples of supermarket swordfish and tuna steaks from 22 states show that these seafood products still contain mercury levels unsafe for growing children and pregnant women. In September the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that women living on the East and West Coasts had twice as much mercury in their blood (5.9 parts per billion, or ppb) than inland women (2.4 ppb). Levels higher than 3.5 ppb may pose a threat to the woman or fetus.

"I don't think that the FDA's [u.S. Food and Drug Administration's] tuna standards are protective enough of children," says Luz Claudio, Ph.D., associate professor of community medicine at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine. "Despite FDA warnings about mercury in tuna, mercury levels are high enough in 16 percent of women of childbearing age to harm fetuses," Claudio says, referring to the risk of brain damage and learning deficits the neurotoxin poses."

http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/global-warming/heavy-metal-tuna/

"Nearly one in 13 women of reproductive age in the United States has mercury in her blood at or above (the level sufficient to harm a fetus), according to the latest (CDC) data."

Compare heavy metal contamination of tuna to the proposed levels in basa and catfish:

"Species with characteristically low levels of mercury include shrimp, tilapia, salmon, pollock, and catfish (FDA March 2004)."

Vietnamese Basa Quality Information: "Australian environmental scientists working for the Mekong River Commission, which monitors water quality at over 50 sites, confirm that testing over the past 15 years shows no serious contamination of the river - partly because there is little industry in its catchment, and partly because of its large flow. It is one of the cleanest of the world's large rivers. Claims that the Mekong River is seriously contaminated have been overwhelmingly refuted by those Australian scientists working in the region." Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) government agency.

"the Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service (AQIS) service rigorously tests all arriving shipments of fish for a range of potential contaminants, prior to release. This multi-tier food safety system ensures consumers have no need to be concerned about product quality or food safety - and this is frequently confirmed by Australia's highest food safety authority: Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ)."

The basic message is do not eat predator fish, like tuna (atun), or grouper (mero) more than twice month, if you are worried about toxic metals. Basa and catfish have very low levels of measured contamination.

[ComputerGuy]

I'm looking for a river that isn't polluted... sort of like the air we breathe. I like your notes, Snowyco. However, I'm having tuna for lunch while talking on my cell phone.... whoops, there go the brain cells...

But seriously, folks, the original story here points out that nothing is safe from government lobbyists, and we really need to ignore the babbling and add some common sense.

[joco69]

West of Ajijic, you might spot the sign offering BAGRE.

Soriana has sold Bagre for years, one of my favorites.