Chefs do not expect a consumer backlash to the claim that farmed Scottish salmon contains high levels of cancer-causing chemicals and is safe to eat only once every four months.
The claim, originating from an American survey published in Science magazine last week, revealed that Scottish farmed salmon contained more carcinogenic substances, such as PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls) and dioxins, than any of the other 700 salmon samples tested.
The Food Standards Agency (FSA), however, was quick to point out that the levels of dioxins and PCBs found in Scottish farmed salmon were in line with maximum safety levels set by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the European Commission.
In spite of the negative press reports, Paul Ripley, chef-proprietor of Ripley's in Padstow, Cornwall, said he did not predict a backlash: "I'm not worried," he said. "When the beef-on-the-bone crisis flared up, I still sold beef and didn't notice any dip in sales."
Meanwhile, Nick Wilson, managing director of London-based fish supplier Penbra, said that the chefs his company supplied had not been particularly concerned. "No one has changed their order," he said. However, he added that sales of organic salmon had risen steadily over the past few years.
The scare has once again raised the issue of fish farming and the intensive methods used to drive down costs. Mitchell Tonks, co-owner and director of restaurant chain Fishworks, said: "This should be a wake-up call to the Scottish salmon industry: that producing cheap food never works."
The report in Science suggested that the contamination related to certain fish meals given to salmon. Feed used by some salmon farmers includes ground-up smaller fish that have fed on smaller organisms living in the mud of the North Atlantic Ocean floor. The mud still carries pollutants as a legacy of Europe's industrial past, and these pollutants are passed along the food chain.
Tonks added that he bought his salmon from a northern Irish farm that reared the fish on organic feed. "It may be more expensive, but it's worth it," he said.
As Science published the study, several organisations used the opportunity to stress their buying preferences. The Soil Association produced a press release urging chefs to buy organic fish, while restaurant chain Loch Fyne issued a statement explaining that the fish meal given to its salmon was made with fish from the "south Atlantic and other clean seas".