Eat Sashimi with Confidence! ... Busan City Strengthens Safety Management of Distributed Seafood

Wholesale Market Conducts Seafood Collection and Inspection Twice Monthly

Fukushima Contaminated Water Discharge... Wholesale Expansion Expected to Alleviate Concerns

The ‘distribution seafood inspection’ aimed at creating a safe food environment will be further expanded from the retail stage to the wholesale stage.

Busan City Strengthens Safety Management of Distributed Seafood Products.

Busan City announced that starting this year, seafood distributed in major seafood wholesale markets in the city will be collected and inspected at least twice a month.

Seafood wholesale markets are markets where large-scale stores such as live fish wholesalers have organically formed around specific areas for seafood wholesale transactions. In Busan, Minrak Live Fish Wholesale Market is a representative example. About 90% of farmed seafood is distributed and sold through public or similar wholesale markets.

This inspection is to strengthen the safety management of distributed seafood due to the recent growth of the aquaculture industry, the increase in distribution of farmed seafood, and the increased use of veterinary drugs in farmed seafood, as well as to alleviate citizens' concerns about seafood following the decision to discharge contaminated water from Fukushima.

The city has reinforced inspection equipment at the City Health and Environment Research Institute to enable rapid and precise inspections. It inspects veterinary drugs and radioactivity, and administrative measures such as sales bans will be taken against non-compliant seafood found through this process.

Until now, the city mainly collected and inspected seafood distributed at the retail stage, such as in marts and markets. With this inspection implementation, systematic safety management of potential issues arising at the wholesale stage during the distribution process until the seafood is sold to consumers is expected to be possible.

In particular, for live fish, there is no separate packaging or labeling, making recall and tracking difficult once distributed in the market. It is expected that safety management of distributed seafood will be more thorough through checkpoint inspections at the ‘wholesale’ stage, which is the stage before retail.

Oh Hoon-tak, head of the Minrak-dong Busan Live Fish Wholesale Cooperative, said, “There were some concerns due to the decision to discharge contaminated water from Fukushima, but if Busan City regularly collects and inspects our seafood, it will be more helpful for live fish sales.”

The Minrak-dong similar wholesale market, where live fish wholesalers are concentrated, mainly distributes and sells seafood directly to sashimi restaurants, Japanese restaurants, and markets in Busan city. Since raw fish is a local Busan dish and a popular food among tourists, it is expected that this inspection will help it be loved as a safer food and contribute to revitalizing the local economy.

Lee So-ra, director of the City Citizen Health Bureau, said, “Food safety issues are directly related to citizens’ health, so we will create a food environment where citizens can eat seafood with confidence by providing accurate and regular information through checkpoint inspections of distributed seafood,” and added, “We will continue proactive safety management to ensure that no safety blind spots occur in distributed seafood.”

Results of radioactive substance collection and inspection of distributed seafood are published monthly on the Busan City website.

Last year, 518 cases of distributed seafood were collected and inspected, and all radioactivity inspection results from the Health and Environment Research Institute were found to be compliant. This year, the target for radioactive substance collection and inspection of distributed seafood has been raised by 200 cases to conduct more than 700 inspections.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.