The Fish Market restaurants in northern California recently started working with Micro Analytical Systems (MASI) in San Francisco to ensure the highly migratory fish it sells in its restaurants and adjacent retail stores have been tested for methylmercury.
The Fish Market is testing the program for three months at its Northern California locations, and depending on those results may roll it out to Southern California restaurants, according to Aiden Coburn, the restaurant chain’s director of seafood quality control added. A brochure on the program is available in The Fish Market’s retail area, and the restaurants are looking into adding a Safe Harbor logo to the menus.
After the testing period, the program will add approximately 10 cents a pound to the wholesale price of the fish tested, which includes highly migratory species like tuna, swordfish and mahimahi. The fish are purchased and tested by H&N in San Francisco.
”When it comes to highly migratory fish species, there is no way to know how much mercury is in them unless they’ve been tested specifically for mercury,” said Coburn. “It’s important to show our guests and retail customers that we care by offering high quality seafood whether they’re dining at our restaurants or purchasing fish at the counter. For us, Safe Harbor offers the validation consumers are looking for when it comes to safe fish.”
“This doesn’t mean you can eat all the tuna you want,” added Coburn. “It’s something we need. It’s the first time I’ve seen a company come along and say ‘We want to do this for the seafood industry.’”
MASI recently entered a joint venture with Italy that will enable its machines to test seafood for methylmercury in the European market, according to company CEO Malcolm Wittenberg.
The Italian Sanitary Authority notified the company last week that its machines are certified for use. Wittenberg expects within a few weeks Carrefour will implement the Safe Harbor system for some species sold in its stores.
MASI was founded in 2004 and is on its third generation of equipment development. Its machines are in use in processing facilities in the Philippines, the United States, Chile, the Maldives and Ecuador.
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