August 14, 2006

Vietnamese catfish exported to Australia to be labelled 'basa'

Vietnam's catfish is of the Pangasius/Pangasiidae species and therefore must be labelled as 'basa' when exported to Australia, the Australian Fish Names Committee said, last week.

Prior to this, it was widely believed that the National Fisheries Quality Assurance and Veterinary Directorate (Nafiqaved) does not allow "basa" to be written on export packaging bound for Australia.

However, a representative from Nafiqaved denied this, saying that there are no such stipulations.

In a related development, the Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service (AQIS) has announced it would ban the use of carbon monoxide (CO) in seafood processing.