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Pufferfish in China bred poison-free
- ginko 8y agoIt was always my understanding that the appeal of well-prepared pufferfish was that it would still contain minute amounts of toxin to create a prickly/numbing feeling in the mouth.
- dnautics 8y agoIt's also an intoxicant. Or at least, I definitely felt drunk after eating it.
- aplc0r 8y agoI've had jellyfish in Taiwan and Japan, and it had a similar numbing effect. It didn't taste like much, but the numbing was novel enough for me to want to eat more.
- mallomarmeasle 8y agoAre you sure that it was not prepared with Szechuan peppercorns? It certainly is numbing, and I've never experienced that from jellyfish.
- sparkie 8y agoThe toxin is in tiny concentrations of the fish's muscle which is normally eaten. The parts that can't be eaten are mainly the liver and ovaries, where the toxin is most concentrated. Interestingly, there are traditional fermentation processes by which the toxin level in the liver and ovaries can be reduced to similar levels to the normal edible parts over a couple of years, which have managed to survive despite prohibition of fugu in Japan during the Edo period.
- Sharlin 8y agoIt was always my understanding that eating pufferfish is pretty much 100% a status thing. Earning bragging rights by either having taken the risk, or having dined in a place exclusive enough to have a very distinguished chef preparing the fish. Or, of course, being able to offer one's guests a plate prepared by such a distinguished chef.
- rfreytag 8y agoChina has issues with food safety: https://www.nytimes.com/topic/destination/food-safety-in-china https://www.nytimes.com/topic/destination/food-safety-in-chi... https://www.brookings.edu/blog/order-from-chaos/2016/04/21/what-chinas-food-safety-challenges-mean-for-consumers-regulators-and-the-global-economy/ https://www.brookings.edu/blog/order-from-chaos/2016/04/21/w... Do you really want to eat poison-free pufferfish there?
- jopsen 8y agoYeah, they might have bred the poison out of them, but what about the heavy metals? :) (I just couldn't help make that joke)
- kevin_thibedeau 8y agoAsia Phish Slayer Poison Yes.
- SmellyGeekBoy 8y agoI've eaten plenty of things in China (have you?) and I'm still alive.
- ASalazarMX 8y ago"For the good of all of us, except the ones who are dead".
- simlevesque 8y agoI bet that China has more people alive than your country.
- SketchySeaBeast 8y agoThe other half of that particular equation is the dead.
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- throwaway2016a 8y agoI find this part interesting: > Wang says: “Chinese [people] have risked death to eat pufferfish for a long time. The government couldn’t inspect every household to implement the pufferfish ban. So it opened up the industry by legalising it.” > Duan says that, thanks to the legalisation, and to the number of fisheries experts graduating from the Ocean University of China and Dalian Ocean University, “pufferfish dining will soon become hugely popular like the eating of crayfish”. So something is dangerous and people are going to do it anyway so they legalize it and try to make it safer instead of criminalizing it. The US could learn from China on this one. Edit: Not explicitly referring to puffer fish. Just I like the general idea policy wise of using tools other than prohibition. I apologize for being off topic a little. (even though I quote the article)
- sigstoat 8y ago> So something is dangerous and people are going to do it anyway so they legalize it and try to make it safer instead of criminalizing it. The US could learn from China on this one. every country could stand to learn that lesson.
- refurb 8y agoPufferfish is legal in the US as well along as it comes from specific sources.[1] [1]https://www.fda.gov/Food/ResourcesForYou/Industry/ucm085458.htm https://www.fda.gov/Food/ResourcesForYou/Industry/ucm085458....
- mallomarmeasle 8y agoThe article and it's title suggest that the toxin is "bred out" of the fish, but it is actually a result of bioaccumulation from toxic organisms (eg bacteria) in their environment. Fish cultured in tanks are naturally free from it. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fugu https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fugu
- nkingsy 8y agoSounds like they do both. Further down in the article they mention selective breeding over generations.
- ClearZ 8y agoYou see, China can make a food without it being poisoned when they put their mind to it. /s
- overcast 8y agoNow if they can only breed taste into them. This fish is mostly tasteless, and the novelty of being dangerous is the reason for its consumption.
- m3kw9 8y agoRecipe for cases where one poisoned one slips thru and you get recalls.
- supernova87a 8y agoAlthough in principle, this kind of making meat safer is useful -- it probably ends up being used to make standards + preparation more lax and doable by unskilled people. (in this case, so more people in China for example can access the exotic fish) This happened with the USDA + US beef industry, they wanted to be able to "cold sterilize" (irradiate) beef to eliminate E. coli. In principle why not, but there was also the belief that the industry wanted it so it would catch (and allow) mistakes in inspection and contamination to go through. Maybe for some things, it's good to have it be hard and only some people highly trained are allowed to do it, like fugu chefs...
- supernova87a 8y agoAlso, consider the risk/reward -- You're counting on a lot of things to go right in this new process, in order for it to not poison people. Cost of policing the new breeding process, inspections, industry regulation. For what benefit? Some more people get to taste an expensive bland fish that isn't going to be feeding millions? I don't believe fugu can be raised in captivity at scale. Why bother?
- myrandomcomment 8y agoI have had Fugu in Japan a number of times. The interesting thing is that they never are able to get all the bad stuff out. Your lips will tingle and get numb at some point. It is damn good.
- AbyormPiranha 8y agoProblem: Pufferfish meat is delicious but it can kill you. Japanese solution: we will employ the finest of artisans who have practiced for five years to exactly remove the poisonous parts of the pufferfish. As these artisans are specially-trained, we will also charge you at a most exquisite price. Chinese solution: we will just breed out the poison.