By NOEL MURPHY
GEELONG supermarkets and restaurants could be selling contaminated imported seafood, a fisheries and former coastal council leader has warned in the wake of the frozen berries hepatitis scandal.
Local seafood suppliers Jenkins and Son and Mantzaris Fisheries agreed with Diane James that imported fish and prawns sold in Geelong could have been from sewage-riddled water.
“Fish sold in supermarket delis needs the same attention the frozen berries are currently receiving,” Ms James said.
“Some fish sold in supermarkets is labelled with their accreditation but not much. My question would be how many species sold by supermarkets are from certified sustainable fisheries, such as the internationally recognized Marine Stewardship accreditation.”
Federal MP Bob Katter said this week said that most imported seafood used water containing raw sewage, requiring prawns and fish to be “chock-a-block with antibiotics”. Senator Nick Xenophon said the Federal Government did not check for bacterial infections of food and only tested five per cent of imported product.
Steven Mantzaris said no level playing existed between domestic and imported seafood.
Australian producers needed to maintain expensive annual registration worth hundreds of thousands of dollars and “jump through hoops” with their products but imported seafood was virtually dumped, unchecked, on Australia markets, he said.
“It’s a massive issue and I’ve been complaining to AQIS for years about not only the risk of infection and diseases coming through but if I wasn’t export registered I could supply and compete with imported product easier.
“They’ve put up a health barrier and price competition barrier.”
Portarlington’s Peter Jenkins was blunt in his criticism.
“Put it this way: I wouldn’t be eating that s..t.
“There’s no protection for the Australian consumer. Imports aren’t governed by PrimeSafe or any of the regulations we’re governed by.
“We have stringent regulations, they’ve got nothing.
“What Bob Katter’s saying is correct, although I can’t really comment on how dangerous it is but surely it’s not as good as eating our fresh local seafood.”
