The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Wednesday identified the lunartail puffer fish as the species responsible for killing one and sickening eight in Nantou County last month, which is toxic enough to kill a diner who eats only two pieces of sashimi.
Through DNA analysis of the fish that poisoned nine diners on Nov. 25, the agency identified the species as a lunartail, or Lagocephalus lunaris, FDA Research and Analysis division chief Wang Der-yuan (王德原) told a news conference.
A sample taken from the sashimi served had 134.4mg per kilogram of tetrodotoxin (TTX), a defensive neurotoxin found in many types of puffer fish, Wang said.
Photo: Chiu Chih-jou, Taipei Times
Samples from the cooked fish and soup showed TTX levels of 33.48mg per kilogram and 31.86mg per kilogram respectively, he said.
The internal organs and skin of the fish presented the most TTX, but further analysis is necessary to quantify the precise levels, he added.
TTX is highly toxic, with consumption of only 0.2mg leading to poisoning symptoms and 1mg to 2mg potentially fatal, Wang said.
Photo courtesy of the Academia Sinica Fish Database of Taiwan
Based on the FDA’s findings, each 10mg piece of sashimi contained about 1.34mg of TTX, meaning that eating two could be fatal, he said.
The lunartail puffer fish is common in the waters around Taiwan, National Taiwan Ocean University Department of Food Science associate professor Chen Tai-yuan (陳泰源) said.
Its plump appearance makes it attractive to many seafood enthusiasts, but its viscera and skin contain particularly high levels of TTX, which cannot be removed through cooking, he said.
Four cases of puffer fish poisoning have been recorded in Taiwan over the past decade, sickening 17 and killing one, FDA Deputy Director Lin Chin-fu (林金富) said.
Japan saw 180 cases from 2013 to last year, sickening 246 and killing five, despite it having a licensing system in place for the sale of puffer fish, he said.
Due to the high risk, the FDA does not have a licensing system and does not plan to instate one, he added.
Under the Act Governing Food Safety and Sanitation (食品安全衛生管理法), food or food additives that contain toxins are not allowed to be produced, processed, stored, sold or given as gifts, so the FDA discourages the sale and consumption of puffer fish, Lin said.
Restaurants that serve puffer fish resulting in food poisoning face a fine of NT$60,000 to NT$200 million (US$1,905 to US$6.35 million), and if the case is serious, the restaurant could be ordered to shut down and the manager could face a prison sentence of up to seven years, he said.
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