A ban on pufferfish consumption since 1990 has finally been lifted, as the Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) and China Food and Drug Administration (CFDA) jointly issued a notification to allow the farming, processing and consumption of two varieties of pufferfish. Pufferfish, or
fugu, are widely known for their poison, which has made eating them a macho dining experience among Chinese.
The two varieties, fugu rubripes and takifugu obscurus, have the longest history of being cultured and the aquaculture techniques are the most mature for controlling their toxicity, according to China Fisheries Association. There are 40 or so varieties along China’s coast.
As the fish are extremely poisonous, cultured pufferfish can only be sold after being processed by qualified enterprises. According to the notification, a system for managing qualified processing enterprises will be implemented. Enterprises must meet strict conditions, including having MOA-approved pufferfish aquaculture bases and building a system to track product quality and safety.
The notification also explicitly states that unprocessed pufferfish must not be sold and the ban on processing or selling all varieties of wild pufferfish is still in effect. Enterprises or individuals who break this rule will be punished in accordance with the Food Safety Law of China.
“The previous ban on consuming all varieties of pufferfish was a one-size-fits-all policy,” said a Chinese netizen on Zhihu, China’s equivalent of Quora. “And the ban has become as invalid as a piece of waste paper” because restaurants sin some places have served the dish without receiving any punishment for a decade or so.
“The ban almost killed China’s pufferfish industry,” the netizen commented sarcastically. Thanks to the ban, China’s pufferfish aquaculture have nearly solely relied on the export market. Knowing pufferfish farmers in China had no alternative, foreign fishery dealers undercut the price, causing many Chinese farmers to withdraw from the market. “China’s pufferfish aquaculture has thus never reached an industrial scale,” he added.
The same netizen also called on the government to learn from Japan, where, among othe regulations, only chefs who passed a certification examination can process the fish. “In this regard, the Japanese government has addressed the issue head on, instead of shunning it. Its management of the industry has not only removed dangers, but also energized and standardized the market,” he said.
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