(szdaily.com) BRANCH stores of Carrefour in Shenzhen have suspended sales of cod products as it is suspected that its stock of the products is actually oilfish.
The supermarket said it already had related certificates provided by suppliers and handed the ‘cod’ samples over to a third-party examination center for checks, said a manager of the supermarket’s publicity department surnamed Xu.
The products will not be on shelves until they are confirmed to be real cod, said Xu.
According to a report by China Central Television, the so-called water cod or dragon cod on the market is actually oilfish, which is oily enough to cause diarrhea, and are mainly used to produce lubricants for industrial use abroad.
Several supermarkets in the city also suspended sales of domestic cod.
“We have two kinds of cod at the supermarket, including one imported from Canada and the other from Dalian, Liaoning Province. The imported cod is 376 yuan (US$60) per kilogram, while the cod from Dalian is only 69.6 yuan per kilogram. We don’t know whether there is a problem with domestic cod, but we plan to take it off the shelves soon and send them for checks,” said a member of staff surnamed Zhao at the Jusco supermarket in Futian District.
Zhao said it was better to get imported cod for children because children were more likely to suffer from diarrhea after consuming the domestic one.
He also said that a growing number of customers had asked them about the cod during the past few days.
The city’s market supervision administration said they had already started investigating the matter and the result would be announced soon.
At present, cod is mainly imported from countries such as Canada, Iceland and Norway. Domestic cod contains more additives. “As certain conditions are required, additives are needed in the process, so there will not be much nutrition in the domestic codfish and may cause problems if excessive amounts are consumed. It is better to buy expensive imported cod in Shenzhen,” said Zhang Shibo, fishing expert at Shenzhen Polytechnic.