Fish has always been an indispensable dish on the Chinese table.

Chinese love fish, seafood restaurants can be found everywhere in China, and the "seafood area" of the vegetable market is often patronized by fish-loving customers.

Many Chinese people like to buy live fish and kill them now. They think such fish are fresh and healthy.

But is that really the case?

1. Behind the farce of "live fish off the shelf", there is a hidden rule for decades.

Recently, "Beijing live fish detected malachite green, or teratogenic and carcinogenic" made headlines in major media.

According to the Beijing News, on January 5, the Beijing Food and Drug Administration announced that three batches of live aquatic fish were unqualified, including two batches of malachite green and one batch of enrofloxacin.

In a short time, a large number of live fish came off the shelves in Beijing market, even Beijing people can not buy a live fish!

So what is malachite green, which attracts so much attention from the Beijing Food and Drug Administration, that it even ordered all live fish off the shelves to ensure that this substance would not appear on people's tables?

Malachite Green: An Abused Carcinogen

Malachite green, alias alkaline green, salt base green and malachite green, is a triphenylmethane structure dye, named for its appearance color of malachite green.

As a fishery additive, malachite green can remain in fish for a long time. It may cause teratogenic, carcinogenic and mutagenic hazards to human body through the food chain.

However, in the 1930s, malachite green, a notorious carcinogen, has been widely used in fishery production.

At that time, it was found that malachite green could be used to kill fungi and parasites on the surface of fish, especially water mildew.

At that time, people had limited knowledge of malachite green, so for decades, not only Chinese, but also fishermen all over the world have been foolishly using malachite green in fish farming.

The harm of malachite green was not discovered until the 1990s.

In 1992, Canada became the first country in the world to ban the use of malachite green as a fishery fungicide, followed by the United States and Australia in the second year.

However, due to various reasons, it was not until 2002 that malachite green was listed in the list of veterinary drugs and their compounds banned from food and animal use in China, which was too late.

Today, malachite green is still widely used in aquaculture.

In interviews, fishmongers also readily admit that they never eat their own fish.

Not only is malachite green used in aquaculture, but it is an open secret that many fishmongers use malachite green to maintain the survival rate of aquatic products in order to prevent the death of fresh aquatic fish during transportation, so as to reduce costs and achieve higher profits.

3. Behind malachite green's "abuse" is the "bad habit" of the Chinese people.

Why do so many fish vendors know the danger of malachite green, but still use malachite green, so that the fish "linger on breathing"?

Ultimately, the problem is that Chinese people like to eat live fish caught in rivers, which is a "bad habit".

Take Beijing as an example. According to the survey, more than 80% of the live fish in Beijing come from Guangzhou.

A sample survey conducted in Guangzhou from January to February 2016 showed that the proportion of malachite green detected by live fish sold in supermarkets was close to 30%, which was an astonishing number!

After all, the longest survival time of live fish is only 8 hours. Offshore fishmongers want to sell live fish from morning till night, and even "travel thousands of miles" to appear in the fish market of inland cities such as Beijing. The cheapest and most useful way is to use malachite green.

It is generally believed that malachite green is commonly used on river fish.

After all, people with common sense know that it is normal for a sea fish to die in transit before long; however, when a river fish dies in transit, it will be abandoned as "not fresh", leading to the failure to sell it.

Australia, on the other hand, is the opposite.

In Australian supermarkets or vegetable markets, it is often difficult to find the shadow of live fish, most of which are frozen.

In addition, Australians generally prefer sea fish to river fish. Therefore, foreign river fish species like carp, which have been flooding Australia, have to rely on Chinese "eaters" to solve the problem.

Therefore, although Australians also like to eat fish, they do not care whether fish is alive or dead when buying fish. After all, Australia's relevant regulations are strict, and frozen fish that are not fresh can not be sold in supermarkets.

However, for Chinese people, buying frozen live fish can not solve the problem. Because some businesses also use malachite green in frozen fish to make their scales look bright.

4 small concluding remarks

In the final analysis, the abuse of malachite green is due to the greed of traders and the excessive pursuit of "live fish" by Chinese people.

At present, only hairy crab can trace the origin of aquatic products in China, but there are still many live fish with Malachite green.

The appearance of grandeur in the aquatic products markets around the world.

Although the country has cracked down severely in recent years, the sale of live fish with malachite green is still prohibited repeatedly. Many vendors usually get off the shelves during the crackdown, and so on, when the "limelight" has passed, they go public again.

Behind these chaotic phenomena, we can see not only the lack of morality, but also a vicious circle brought about by inherent ideas.

Perhaps more important than banning malachite green is to change Chinese habits by accepting frozen fish.

Now, with the continuous development of quick-freezing technology, the liquid nitrogen seafood quick-freezing machine newly developed and manufactured by Guangzhou Extreme Speed Refrigeration Equipment Co., Ltd. has a great contribution to seafood quality. The seafood quick-freezing machine can be reduced to more than 150 degrees C in a few minutes, because its quick-freezing time can freeze the tissue cells of food in an instant and quickly pass through the maximum ice crystal formation zone. To help food maintain its original color, flavor and substance. It has attracted the attention of many enterprises, and has reached cooperative relations with well-known domestic enterprises, and has a high degree of satisfaction. Compared with the traditional compressor, the liquid nitrogen seafood quick-freezing equipment has a higher value, and its quality and time have been greatly improved.

Now, "live fish is good" frozen fish is not good, it does not exist, starting with the possession of liquid nitrogen seafood freezer!

Attached Tips: How to identify fish mixed with Malachite green?

Look at the gills:

Generally speaking, the gills are bright red without any viscera. After medication, the gills become white due to excessive blood loss or have blood stasis due to bleeding, which is purple red.

Because of the high residual characteristics of malachite green, the surface color of fish that have used malachite green is light blue, and some fish that have been soaked in malachite green solution with high concentration will even be green grass.

Look at the fish.

There is a protective layer of transparent mucus on the surface of the fish, which is equivalent to the "lubricant" of the fish and feels slippery.

When the concentration of malachite green is low, there will be excessive mucus on the body surface. When the concentration is too high, the protective film will be destroyed by drugs. The mucus will fall off from the body surface, and the scales will feel rough and scratched.

Source: Australian Microblog