FDA: Ciguatera fish toxins pose serious health danger

Nation's Restaurant News,  Feb 18, 2008  

Tags: FDA, health care

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WASHINGTON -- Ciguatera fish poisoning, or CFP, which poses potentially serious health consequences for consumers, is likely to occur in grouper, snapper and hogfish caught within 10 miles of the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary in the northern Gulf of Mexico, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration warned seafood processors this month.

FDA officials said such poisoning is also likely in amberjack, barracuda and other wide-ranging species taken within 50 miles of the sanctuary. The agency, which previously believed that CFP in fish in that geographical area would be extremely rare, revised its position after confirmed outbreaks in Washington, D.C., and St. Louis.

FDA officials said the toxins that cause ciguatera cannot be destroyed by cooking or freezing, and that the only way to detect CFP is through laboratory testing.

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