Simple question: Going forward, how can I determine if seafood was caught in the Gulf?

Simple question, maybe not so simple answer. There have been a number of issues in the past where it has been useful to determine where a particular type of food has been harvested from. In my experience, this has not always been an easy thing to determine. I love seafood- I actually grew up in southern Louisiana and so I've eaten a ton of it- but I'm older, live in the Northwest now and have kids and given heavy metal levels in fish, etc., seafood is something we still eat...but with a little more consideration than, say, carrots.

How will it be possible to determine whether a package of frozen or canned fish, shrimp or crab (for instance) contains meat harvested from the Gulf of Mexico?

Thanks. I'm kind of out of ideas on how to inspect food in regards to this. Any help or ideas is appreciated.

PB

"If you bake it and it looks fried, it might be a gulf fish"

"If its half off on McDonald's menu, it might be a gulf fish"

That ought to be doable where you are. Your fishmonger knows where the stuff comes from. Ask.

I don't think you'll eliminate anything but big shrimp by doing that.

Eat local.

If it burns, it's from the GoM..

It's either laugh or cry the way I see it.

While you can identify that a cow is from Canada, it is much more difficult with seafood as you can imagine.

I would stick to local. Talk to your local fish market. They don't want to get a rep for selling tainted fish. I would be more leery of chain grocery stores, however.

Alaska salmon frozen and packaged in China? No, thanks.

...much food can get around.

For instance, I was at the dollar store picking up some toiletries and I meandered back to the frozen foods case because they usually have some Texas-style garlic bread which everyone loves (and which is really cheap). Anyway, I noticed some very cheap frozen broccoli florets (this is at a time when broccoli was pretty expensive) and started looking at the bag to find out where they came from.

They came from China! I couldn't believe that those broccoli florets had sailed all the way across the Pacific! I'm not a big fan of Chinese goods, which means most of the stuff at the dollar store is verboten, and so I put them back.

But it was another interesting reminder about how far away some of our (potential) food can come from.

PB

Lake Perch

PCB

I don't know?

Might be some.

Don

You really shouldn't eat any fish caught anywhere in New York State. The guidelines for eating what you catch here are you can safely eat 2.3 ounces per week in months without a "g" or "b" provided the new moon is in the latter half of the month and you aren't pregnant, planning ever to be pregnant, likely to be near anyone who might become pregnant some day, etc.

Or Halibut...:shrug: Alaska fish is now labled as such..

avoid it completely then it won't matter.

...our family. The oils in fish are very healthy and my girlfriend and I love shellfish. :)

So just cutting that whole spectrum of food is not going to work for us.

PB

you can get other Maine seafood that way too?

that might be an option if you live in the NW. As far as canned seafood, it has a pretty long shelf life. I would think any seafood that is already canned and on supermarket shelves probably would have been caught and processed long before this spill happened.

I remember when the canned cat food was contaminated there were dates on the cans. List were published not to purchase the food if it had a certain lot number or date.

...a long time, I'm wondering how- say a year from now- I'm going to be able to make the distinction. Someone else in the thread pointed out that it might wind up being easier to determine if the seafood had come from someplace else than whether or not it had come from the Gulf. That's a good point too.

As to the cat and dog food scares, that was bad and we had to do lots of checking because we obviously didn't want to kill our pets!

Thanks,

PB

I would avoid shrimp for awhile. If it's not gulf caught, then it's most likely farmed. I would rather eat the gulf shrimp with the oil than farmed shrimp.

..."in oil", as it were, than farmed?

PB

the Far East. Taiwan, Singapore, Thailand, etc. Where it is farmed in those places is not so pleasant. I worry about pollution in those places. I worry a lot about it. So, I don't generally eat farmed shrimp. Oysters either, unless I can determine their source and check it out.

It's worth looking at the origin information on packaged shellfish.

As for the Gulf stuff, that has traditionally labeled as such as a marketing thing. People are/were willing to pay a premium for Gulf seafood. I suppose that will change now, though.

...the delicious-looking seafood presents just such a problem.

PB

Lucky for me, I live on the East coast of Florida. I only eat locally caught Mayport Shrimp. Or I cast net for my own in the St. Johns river.

I don't touch any other shrimp.

http://eatdrinkbetter.com/2009/10/29/hungry-for-shrimp-first-read-this/

Since there is a good chance that your shrimp is farmed, you should know exactly how it was farmed, and what inputs were used to produce those shrimp. From the book BottomFeeder: How To Eat Ethically In A World of Vanishing Seafood by author Taras Grescoe, here’s a description of how an overseas farmed shrimp pond is prepared:

“…by spreading urea and superphosphate to encourage plankton growth. Once the pond has been filled with brackish water, generally pumped from a nearby creek, it is typically covered with diesel oil to kill off any insect larvae. The water is then treated with piscicide – a substance that poisons any competing aquatic life- such as chlorine or rotenone; the latter has been strongly linked to Parkinson’s disease in humans…”

Mmm…tasty. Now once the shrimp are growing in their pond, a rotation of pesticides, piscicide, and antibiotics are continually administered to the pond. Antibiotics that are sometimes used include Chloramphenicol and Nitrofurans which are suspected carcinogens. And as with any CAFO type operation, any time antibiotics are used this prolifically, antibiotic resistant bacteria can sprout up.

I highly recommended you read the entry on La Vida Locavore (a very entertaining and informative blog) entitled Why You Really Don’t Want to Eat Shrimp which has more information on the dangers of farmed shrimp and was the inspiration behind this post.

PB

...but you may be able to determine if it was NOT caught in the Gulf.
That might be the best you can do, for the time being.
I've always eaten lots of seafood, and I've cut way back recently.
For instance - I won't eat restaurant shrimp now.
Most of it comes from Thailand or Vietnam, but you never know.
Luckily, here in New York City, it's not impossible to find seafood where it is clear where it came from.
Depending on where you are, it may be more difficult.

Also, because of all the petroleum that is required, we've cut way back on red meat and chicken, not that we ate a lot to begin with. Lots more tofu and veggie dishes in the diet this year. I think I've eaten less than a pound of meat and a pound of seafood since April 20th...

...it's just too damned delicious, heh heh. :)

PB

I had never before had PINK Gulf shrimp before I moved to SW Florida. I have never had Gulf shrimp since living here that wasn't PINK, BEFORE it was cooked. It does have a distinct taste. I actually didn't like it when I first had it. It tastes nothing like the shrimp bought or served in the NY area, wheverever they get it from.

Yes, you are correct that they label where the seafood comes from in NY. It might be a state law I think.

You might need to butter them up with a little wine first :rofl:

is EXCELLENT seafood from the Pacific NW. My husband used to travel to SF on business and always brought it home packed in ice on the plane with him. Absolutely delicious!

I'm going back to the NE in a few days. Looking forward to having my flounder, sole, and crab (probably from Maryland). I might even treat myself to some Maine lobster. With all these other choices, I can live without Gulf shrimp.

is EXCELLENT seafood from the Pacific NW. My husband used to travel to SF on business and always brought it home packed in ice on the plane with him. Absolutely delicious!

I'm going back to the NE in a few days. Looking forward to having my flounder, sole, and crab (probably from Maryland). I might even treat myself to some Maine lobster. With all these other choices, I can live without Gulf shrimp.