Safe "Engineered" Fugu, Sans Gene Manipulation

zlel writes "Did anyone figure that you could get clean, poison-free Fugu without genetic engineering? According to this story, a group of researchers at Nagasaki University managed to do just that - they bred Fugu by giving them poison-free feed. They tried to get Japan to modify its ban on the sale of Fugu liver - but authorities felt that this was too big a risk - so in the meantime, you gotta trust your chefs." Anyone willing to translate for the Japanese-impaired?

Comments

reason why fugu tasted so good was the poison

[xutopia]

Traces of anhydrotetrodotoxin 4-epitetrodotoxin in the flesh gives people a high. Just like it is more fun to eat a meal with a bottle of wine to intoxicate yourself with the poison in fugu does the same effect.

I wonder if it would be possible to have a fugu with just very small doses of the poison so that we can eat it, get high and not die. Now that would be cool!

The point is that,

[DB_researcher]

They does not find how to farm poison-free fugu, but make sure demonstlation of it.

It is known that the poison of Fugu fish, tetradotoxin, is not came from Fugu itself. The poison is came from their feed, some marine bioproducts(Staphyloccus, Bacillus, Micrococcus, Alteromonas, Acinetobacter, etc.).

There is no doubt that the scientist who found the source of poison of fugu make great work. But, in practical science, making good experiment is as important as theorem. This is the first experiment that proves poison-free fugu can be farmed by practical method.

Re:Is it worth it?

[mw2040]

I was in Japan in 2001 and stopped in at an off hour (mid-afternoon) to a nice fugu restaurant. Even though it was against their policy, they let us order just a platter of fugu and some beer (normally they required a full meal... I don't know what they liked about us (American tourists are not particularly rare)). Anyway, the point is that there is nothing special about the taste of fugu... pure taste-wise, tuna, salmon, mackerel... just about anything is more interesting. The value lies in saying you did it.

That said, I still enjoy saying I did it and have no regrets at all.

Re:What's the point?

[b-baggins]

Exactly. Correctly prepared fugu leaves a trace amount of the toxin present. It's a nerve toxin, so when you eat, it causes a numbness and tingling around the lips and tongue.

That's the part about the meal that people like.

The toxin is heat sensitive, so the key is to cook the fish long enough to kill enough toxin so that you get the desired effect without killing yourself.

Get-rich-quick

[gardyloo]

Many of the postings say:
1) Fugu is expensive because of the risk of death; a hurt customer closes the restaurant and the chef won't work again;
2) The numbness in one's lips is the only way to tell if it was prepared correctly (with a smidgen of poison).

Accordingly, I predict the rise of pseudo-fugu franchises, which might actually make a bit of money for a few years:
i) Set up, serve known-safe fugu with a bit of local anaesthetic injected into the liver, or wherever;
ii) ...
iii) Profit!