China has sought to steady public confidence in its domestic salmon industry with the launch of a new standard, the ‘Sheng Shi Salmon’ (Eat Fresh Salmon).
The ‘Eat Fresh Salmon’ standard, which allows rainbow trout to be labeled and sold as salmon, is backed by the China Aquatic Products Processing and Marketing Alliance (CAPPMA), in coordination with several Chinese rainbow trout farming companies.
The ruling is intended to resolve complaints that China-produced rainbow trout is being mislabled as salmon, amid concerns that eating rainbow trout raw might lead to parasite infection.
A minor scandal was sparked unintentionally in May 2018 by the national broadcaster CCTV when it ran an upbeat report on its business channel on the success of “salmon” producers in Qinghai, a far-flung northwestern region at the foot of the Himalayas, which produces 30 percent of China’s overall output of rainbow trout.
One company that was featured, Qinghai Min Ze Long Yang Xia Sheng Tai Aquatic Products Co., drew national attention in May 2018 when its locally farmed rainbow trout drew complaints from online consumers who mistakenly believed they were buying imported Atlantic salmon. That firm is among the 13 firms which have come together to launch the ‘Eat Fresh Salmon’ standard, along with Gansu Wen Xiang Sheng Tai Fisheries Ltd, based in another of China’s poorer, western provinces.
The justification for the new standard is that salmon is the umbrella name of salmonidae fish, and rainbow trout also belongs to this category, CAPPMA said on its website, according to the Global Times.
Photo courtesy of People's Daily
