Tainted Fish From Famous Chinese Lake Found

Tainted ayu, or “sweetfish,” with high levels of formaldehyde and as hard as rubber have been found in China’s Jiangsu Province.

Chinese media reported yesterday that Jiangsu authorities found the tainted fish after studying ayu caught in Lake Tai (Taihu) and sold in a market in the city of Wuxi.

A Wuxi agricultural official said, “The so-called rubber sweetfish has been a social issue after being found in Suzhou. But this is the first time for the contaminated fish to be found in Wuxi.”

He said the rubber sweetfish is as tough as snake skin since merchants put the fish in formaldehyde for a long time to prevent spoiling.

A Wuxi resident said the sweetfish he bought in a market was as tough as rubber.

Sweetfish from the lake has been considered one of China’s four most delicious fish since the Ming Dynasty, and is called “whitebait” in Korea.

Chinese food safety laws bar fish from being treated with formaldehyde, but merchants frequently use the chemical to prevent fish from going bad. Formaldehyde is known to cause lung cancer.

orionha@donga.com