Is Your Fish Really Foul?

What is high in protein, low in calories, fat and cholesterol, and the dish of choice in many countries with low rates of heart disease? The answer, as doctors and nutritionists have long maintained is fish. Indeed, experts point out, what little fat there is in some species can actually benefit the consumer; it contains high levels of omega-3 fatty acids, which can lower cholesterol levels in humans.

The unremitting praise of virtually everything piscan has had its effect. Over the past 30 years, as American beef consumption has sunk, T-bone and porterhouse have given way to steaks of salmon, swordfish and tuna. Overall U.S. fish consumption is up 50% since 1960 and nearly 25% in the past 10 years alone.

But now, just in time for barbecue season, consumers are befuddled by a series of reports casting doubt on the safety of this highly touted health food. They were especially dismayed when the Consumers Union published the results of a six-month investigation showing widespread fish spoilage, bacterial contamination and the presence of mercury and industrial pollutants in fish sold in Chicago and New York City markets.

Similar concerns spurred members of Congress to introduce legislation that would beef up the government's efforts to inspect seafood. That would please the nation's professional chefs, 300 of whom have become so alarmed by what they see in U.S. fish markets that they have banded together to form CHEFS: Chefs Helping to Enhance Food Safety.

The need for a stronger inspection system has been underscored by a number of incidents. Last week three former inspectors for the Food and Drug Administration pleaded guilty to accepting bribes in return for approving mercury-tainted swordfish and decomposing lobster. And last month the FDA revealed that a shipment of contaminated tuna from Ecuador led to an outbreak of food poisoning involving 79 people in eight states.

But the sharpest warnings have been issued about fish caught by recreational fishermen, which account for about 20% of the fish eaten in the U.S. Their catches in the Great Lakes can be so heavily contaminated with PCBs and other chemicals that the Medical Society of Genesee County, Mich., has taken the extraordinary step of warning that the stuff should not be eaten by "children or by men or women who ever plan to have children." All in all, says Jeffery Foran, an environmental-health expert at George Washington University, "if you're pregnant or nursing, you should probably avoid most kinds of fish."

Such advice may be extreme, considering the health benefits of eating most seafood. The FDA maintains that concerns have been overstated. "The perception that seafood is unsafe is untrue," declared FDA Commissioner David Kessler last month in a speech to a fish-industry group. In the past two years, the agency has toughened its fish-inspection procedures, adding staff and dollars to the effort. "The vast preponderance of seafood that reaches the consumer is safe, clean and free of contaminants and chemicals," Kessler , maintains. Researchers at the National Academy of Science came to essentially the same conclusion last year in a report on seafood safety. "There are some areas of concern," says Farid Ahmed, the toxicologist who oversaw the report, but "basically the fish supply is safe."