Fish cakes in markets are safe from radioactive material

- Coliform group is detected, so it is necessary to thoroughly perform sanitary supervision -

  Fish cakes, one of the most frequently purchased products in Korea, are used widely for side dishes, refreshments, etc. and value of shipments size continuously increases more than 8% annually since 2009.

  The Korea Consumer Agency(www.kca.go.kr) started investigating labelling and safety systems of fish cake products which can be contaminated by radioactivity after reactor accident at the Japanese nuclear power plant, and have a high possibility to be spoiled according to production and distribution for consumers' safe eating lifestyle.

  As a result of analysis on microorganism, radioactive material, preservative, labelling system, etc. regarding 22 fish cake products in markets, all products did not have any problems of radioactive material and preservative, but coliform group was detected in one product, so requiring thorough sanitary supervision. In addition, it appeared that some products were a lack of labelling information on major material content, importing countries, etc. Thus, it planned to notice the result to relevant institutions, and recommend to strengthen supervision of management and suggest improvements.

  The KCA would plan to announce results of research on sanitation and safety of food, frequently consumed in markets.

■ Coliform group was detected in one of 22 fish cake products

ㅇ 'Coliform group' was detected in the 'High grade of square fish cakes’ of the Mido-food‘s product, showing the positive reaction. Thus, it is critical to thoroughly supervise hygiene conditions during production and distribution.

ㅇ Vibrio parahaemolyticus’, ‘Clostridium perfringens’ which could lead food poisoning were not detected in the all products.

■ It was difficult to check contents of major raw materials and importing countries

ㅇ It needs to improve a content labelling system related to raw materials of 6 products(fish paste, fish meat, etc.)

ㅇ Only one product indicated the importing country, others showed 'imported product'

- Just 2 products indicated fishes which used for main raw materials