Seven Badjao natives were rushed to hospital after eating puffer fish that they caught during the weekend.
Rosenda Kaluman said her husband, Mejame, started vomiting and contracted diarrhea last night after he and his neighbors ate 2 kilos of puffer fish that they caught at Matina Aplaya in 
Davao City.
Doctors said all 7 patients were poisoned after ingesting tetrodotoxin from the fish, which is more dangerous than cyanide.
Of the 3,575 inspections recorded in 2010 in Newfoundland (that’s in Canada), 42 per cent of them were situations in which inspectors travelled to a processing facility or landing site, but no inspection was done because there was no fish there.
Provincial auditor John Noseworthy noted, “Given that 42 per cent of the inspections were situations where there was no fish to inspect, they probably might 
want to go back and revisit that, and determine if that’s the best way to go about it. There doesn’t seem to be any sort of plan."
Noseworthy also found enforcement officers did more inspections of cod than they did for shrimp, despite the fact that harvesters land five times more shrimp every year than they do cod.
Another major gap in the system is at Port aux Basques, from where 90 per cent of the province’s exported seafood leaves.
Inspections there were only done seven hours per day, five days per week; of the 437 inspections conducted between January and November 2010 none were recorded in the provincial database.
The government responded the province’s fishery is "intense and erratic," which makes it difficult to do the sort of planning Noseworthy is calling for.
Fisheries Minister Clyde Jackman pointed out that all the province’s shrimp is landed in such a short period of time that it’s tough to carry out a lot of inspections.
Because the season for cod is much longer, more inspections are done.
Derek Butler, executive director of the Association of Seafood Producers, said Noseworthy’s report "reflect lack of a complete understanding of the industry."
Instead of more inspections and better scheduling, Butler said there should be less inspection.
He said meaningful quality control is done by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, as well as European Union and American quality certification.
Singer and actress Mandy Moore returned to Los Angeles last night (right) after a self-described bout of food poisoning due to fish.
Tweeting about the overseas illness, Miss Moore wrote, "Food poisoning is the worst. It will be a long time before I can even look at a piece of fish."
After an investigation revealed a B.C. grocery store changing the best-before date on fish, former Superstore employees have come forward to claim that it wasn’t the first time this happened.
CTV News reports that former Langley Superstore employee Sylvia Taylor claims that changing best-before dates isn’t something new for the grocery chain. She worked in the deli department during the 1990s.
"Part of our duties, as directed by our manager, was to check our meat packages in the display cases for their best-before dates. If they were expired, we were to pull the meats, open up the packages, smell them, 
and if they smelled okay, we re-wrapped them and put a new best-before date, extending usually by about five days. When we were told to change the best-before dates, I stopped buying any meat products from the Real Canadian Superstore."
Jason Paxton claims he had a similar experience when he worked in the seafood department at the Duncan Superstore.
"Every time the meat was re-packed, the best-before date was changed. The majority of it we could wash off, re-package it and get a couple of more days out of it."
Paxton says he has since told his friends not to shop at Superstore.
Ken Randa of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency says there are no laws against changing the best-before dates on packaged food, adding,
"If they change the best-before date, there may not be anything wrong with it, and maybe no legislative issue with us. Ultimately, they have to answer to you, the consumer.”
Superstore says employee are not allowed to change best-before dates and are required to sign a policy stating as much when they’re hired. The store says they’re also required to review and re-sign on a regular basis.
Uh-huh.
CTV News reports that during an early morning undercover visit to the Real Canadian Superstore at 3000 Lougheed Highway in Coquitlam, British Columbia (that’s in Canada) a CTV News camera captured footage of an employee in the fish section selecting salmon steaks from the display and putting them behind the counter, where she wrapped them in new plastic.
But the fish didn’t just get a new wrapper — it also received a new label. Minutes earlier, the salmon had been displayed with a best-before date of 
Dec. 5, but when it was re-wrapped, the new best-before date was Dec. 9.
On Dec. 8 — one day before the new best-before date — CTV News took the salmon to Kevin Allen (left, exactly as shown, on a different network), a microbiologist at the University of B.C. The verdict was already clear.
"That meat is unquestionably spoiled. The smell is quite strong and rather unpleasant," he said.
Allen warns that what the store has done could allow dangerous pathogens more time to grow.
"As a consumer and a food microbiologist, this isn’t what we want to see," he said. "Without doubt, at this point, in my opinion, this is meat that shouldn’t be consumed."
Superstore declined an interview, but issued a statement explaining their policy is: "that when modification to packaging is required the original .jpg)
best-before dates are maintained. We have reinforced this policy with the pertinent store…. We apologize if there is any concern on the part of our customers."
Other grocery stores in Metro Vancouver told CTV News they don’t re-wrap food or change the best-before date.
A video is available at http://www.ctvbc.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20110104/bc_fishy_fish_110104/20110104?hub=BritishColumbiaHome
but it doesn’t seem to be working at the moment.
With all the fancy iPhone apps and text notifications and Intertube what-have-youse, sometimes the basics work better.
CBC News reports fishermen in P.E.I. (that’s in Canada) say government emails and web postings don’t compare to flags in the water when it comes to warning 
them about high bacteria levels in shellfish.
The shellfishery in Charlottetown Harbour was closed on several occasions this summer when heavy rains caused the sewer system to overflow, creating high bacteria levels. Fishermen complained they weren’t getting adequate warning of the closures, which would enable them to harvest oysters and mussels ahead of the storm.
As Hurricane Earl made its way toward the Maritimes last month, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency emailed people in the shellfish industry. It warned the storm could bring heavy rains and lead to closures.
John White, a policy officer with CFIA, told CBC News this was the last time such a warning would be issued. CFIA is opting for posting a notice on its website telling the industry that fishers are responsible for checking the forecast.
The P.E.I. Shellfish Association suggests putting yellow warning flags in the water when there’s a possible closure and a red one when the fishery is shut down.
Just like a red or yellow or green sign on a restaurant. Because who wants to check a web site when you just want to grab a meal?
“The life of everyone on board depends upon just one thing: finding someone back there who can not only fly this plane, but who didn’t have 
fish for dinner.”
The nominal plot of the 1980 movie, Airplane! recounts the efforts of a stalwart flight crew trying to land a commercial airliner after spoiled fish incapacitates most of the crew and passengers.
I first saw the movie Airplane at the drive-inn on the edge of Brantford, Ontario (that’s in Canada) when it came out in 1980.
I thought it was stupid.
But that’s because I was more interested in the blond next to me.
When I saw Airplane again, I thought it was hilarious.
I’ve seen the movie so many times, I can better recite the lines from Airplane than nerds who do Monty Python sketches. And Leslie Neilson, good Canadian that he is, stole the show (he’s from Saskatchewan; that’s in Canada, his brother was deputy Prime Minister of Canada for awhile in the 1980s).
As reported in the N.Y. Times today, within months of its release in July 1980, Airplane! became the highest-grossing comedy in box office history, a distinction that held until “Ghostbusters” came along in 1984. And it remains one of the most influential. Its anything-goes slapstick and furious pop culture riffs can be seen in the 20-gags-a-minute relentlessness of “The Simpsons,” “South Park” and “Family Guy” and grab-bag big-screen parodies like “Epic Movie, “Date Movie” and the “Scary Movie” franchise.
Back in 1979, when “Airplane!” was being shot on Universal’s back lot in Los Angeles, it didn’t seem like a potential blockbuster. The three Wisconsin-born filmmakers were rather amazed that anybody would give them a budget — and $3.5 million at that — to make such a lark, one that had no big stars. A follow-up to their 1977 cult film “The Kentucky Fried Movie,” which they had written, this was an extended riff on “Zero 
Hour!,” a glum thriller from 1957 about an imperiled aircraft that set the template for the next half-century’s worth of disaster pictures.
Food poisoning can be awesome.
I went on a date with my wife last week.
Not like that new movie, Date Night, which looks horrible, but at 1 p.m., when we have a babysitter. Anything later than that is too tiring to contemplate.
Being in Kansas, I ordered the mussels from Prince Edward Island (that’s in Canada) and the featured white wine from Australia, which, to our ultimate surprise, cost $15 a glass. The extent to which restaurants will go to rip people off, especially in a crappy economy, apparently knows no bounds. I take responsibility, but won’t be going back.
I’m also not alone.
The Washington Post reported yesterday that the expensive "sheep’s milk" cheese in a Manhattan market was really made from cow’s milk. And a jar of "Sturgeon caviar" was, in fact, Mississippi paddlefish.
Some honey makers dilute their honey with sugar beets or corn syrup, their competitors say, but still market it as 100 percent pure at a premium price.
And last year, a Fairfax man was convicted of selling 10 million pounds of cheap, frozen catfish fillets from Vietnam as much more expensive grouper, red snapper and flounder. The fish was bought by national chain retailers, wholesalers and food service companies, and ended up on dinner plates across the country.
"Food fraud" has been documented in fruit juice, olive oil, spices, vinegar, wine, spirits and maple syrup, and appears to pose a significant problem in the seafood industry. Victims range from the shopper at the local supermarket to multimillion companies, including E&J Gallo and Heinz USA.
Such deception has been happening since Roman times, but it is getting new attention as more products are imported and a tight economy heightens competition. And the U.S. food industry says federal regulators are not doing enough to combat it.
Maybe New York Yankees baseball player Derek Jeter should stick with the High Liner fish sticks after missing a day of spring training last week due to “bad fish.”
The same day, Nova Scotia-based frozen seafood giant High Liner Foods Inc. said it wants to "bulletproof" its supply chain, stating in a corporate document,
"Becoming ‘bulletproof’ on food safety will allow us to continue to use China for primary processing and manage the risk to our businesses and brands. An important aspect of food safety is traceability in the supply chain — an area we remain keenly focused on continuing to improve. …
“Consumers are focused on food safety and have expressed concerns about food labelled ‘Product of China.’ We do a lot of primary processing in China because the costs are substantially lower than anywhere else. We have worked hard in establishing a procurement structure that allows us to be confident in our quality, no matter where the primary processing is done.
"In many cases, moving the primary processing to another developing country does not solve the problem, and moving it to North America or industrialized Europe would increase costs significantly at a time when consumers are searching for value."
The story goes on to say, and I’m not making this up, the tagline for the iconic Captain High Liner, a seafarer who introduces a young boy to frozen fish in the company’s ads, would likely be stuck in the collective conscious of a generation of Canadians now approaching middle age.
Seafood in Kansas sucks.
Of course it does, we’re at least 20 hours from any major body of water.
But the available choices became a bunch more confusing.
I chuckle when one of the local upscale restaurants advertizes mussels from Prince Edward Island (that’s in Canada) for some outrageous price to pay for the air transit. They’re mussels, a buck a pound in Ontario.
Whole Foodies announced a few days ago they would continue selling farmed fish, but only under the Whole Foods Market Responsibly Farmed logo, verified by third-party auditors, which is completely meaningless.
Now Target Corp., another of our regular shopping destinations, has announced it has eliminated all farmed salmon from its fresh, frozen and smoked seafood sections at stores nationwide.
The discount giant said it wanted to ensure that its salmon was "sourced in a sustainable way that helps to preserve abundance, species health and doesn’t harm local habitats."
The Minneapolis company said salmon farms could hurt the environment through pollution, chemicals and parasites.
So who’s right? Whole Foods or Target? I want aquaculture, to save the oceans, and don’t buy into some third-party auditing bullshit.