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Is That Sushi Hazardous To Your Health?

pdclarry writes "A recent study by scientists at the American Museum of Natural History and Columbia University found that a piece of tuna sushi may not be tuna at all: 'A piece of tuna sushi has the potential to be an endangered species, a fraud or a health hazard,' wrote the authors. 'All three of these cases were uncovered in this study.' The study, published in PLoS ONE examined 68 samples of tuna sushi purchased from 31 restaurants in Manhattan (New York City) and Denver, Colorado. Some of these were from endangered species, others were not as labeled, and some were not tuna at all. Of these last, five samples labeled as 'white tuna' were from a toxic fish, Escolar, which is a gempylid species banned for sale in Italy and Japan due to health concerns. 'It can cause gastrointestinal symptoms ranging from mild and rapid passage of oily yellow or orange droplets, to severe diarrhea with nausea and vomiting. The milder symptoms have been referred to as keriorrhea [i.e. flow of wax in Greek].' Fraud in sushi is not new; Slashdot also reported study on mislabeling in 2008. This new study shows that some sushi can actually make you sick. The study was also covered by Wired."

23 of 554 comments (clear)

  1. Yuck! Sushi! by Cornwallis · · Score: 3, Funny

    Eating sushi is almost as disgusting as eating raw fish!

    1. Re:Yuck! Sushi! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Cavemen discovered that cooking meat was a good idea some millennia ago and we've been doing it since then, but some people never got the memo because they were on an island or something.

    2. Re:Yuck! Sushi! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      So why don't you eat actual Sushi instead of Sashimi, with something like chicken if you don't like raw fish?

      The more you know...... the less food you'll hate over pure ignorance.

      Somehow raw chicken just doesn't do it for me.

    3. Re:Yuck! Sushi! by _Sprocket_ · · Score: 2, Funny

      Not even if it's sushi-grade?

  2. Re:Oh, so that's what happened. by Ethanol-fueled · · Score: 5, Funny

    "It can cause gastrointestinal symptoms range from mild and rapid passage of oily yellow or orange droplets"

    "Tubgirl Tuna", they call it.

  3. Too late by LeeBarnes · · Score: 2, Funny

    NOW they tell me. I just ate some tuna sushi for lunch today. ::sigh::

    I, for one, welcome my new parasitic overlords.

    --
    "Before humanity, the stars shone throughout the heavens. After humanity [has gone], the stars will continue to shine"
  4. Re:Technically... by Kelzar · · Score: 4, Funny

    Why can't we all just get along? It doesn't have to be this way! Can't it be both? Just like a whale is a fish and a mammal?

  5. great timing by Eil · · Score: 4, Funny

    I just sat down at the computer for dinner with my spicy tuna roll and this is the top story on the Front page. Thank you Slashdot, for ruining my appetite yet again.

  6. Re:Technically... by mysidia · · Score: 2, Funny

    Ah, but this is where you're wrong..

    There's this thing called ANSI standard SUSHI (ANSI/NISO Z39.93-2007), also referred to as the sushi standard.

    And as demontrated at the above URL, it has absolutely nothing to do with fish, or at least it's not supposed to be. If I ask for SUSHI, and I get some type of fish instead, and they call that sushi, clearly some sort of fraud has occured.....

    And perhaps using SUSHI can be hazardous to your health, but only really to the extent that all programming is hazardous to your health.

    I was unable to apprehend the article's concept that you would order or ask someone to give you SUSHI and they'd give you a toxic fish instead of the specification.

    Nor did I realize it was so easy for people to be confused into thinking that specifications such as Sushi are edible, or that people would actually be so oblivious as to confuse a piece of fish for a copy of a national standard...

  7. Re:Fire goooooood. by amRadioHed · · Score: 3, Funny

    Your lose.

    --
    We hope your rules and wisdom choke you / Now we are one in everlasting peace
  8. Re:So technically by j_166 · · Score: 3, Funny

    That's OK, you should see how the Japanese butcher our words.

  9. Re:Study finds by BluBrick · · Score: 2, Funny

    The urge to what? Oh, I see, you ended a sentence with a preposition and an ellipsis just to enrage the Grammar Nazis*.





    (* What's this? I seem to have misspelled Grammer Nazi's)

    --
    Ahh - My eye!
    The doctor said I'm not supposed to get Slashdot in it!
  10. Re:Technically... by Shikaku · · Score: 3, Funny

    It's a party in my mouth and everyone's throwing up.

  11. It's a strange day... by jonaskoelker · · Score: 2, Funny

    It is a strange day on /. when tubgirl is on topic...

  12. Re:Technically... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Sushi, and other words, are defined by how people use them. And in the US that means rice and raw fish wrapped in seaweed for 99% of the population. Then english language, unlike C, does not have an ansi standard. It's all fluid.

    There is a certain irony in your argument. The article is about mislabeling the fish causing heath problems. Were the standards to be adhered to, there would be less misunderstanding and less risk.

    Q: If you called a donkey's tail a leg, how many legs would it have?
    A: The donkey would still have 4 legs. Calling the tail a leg doesn't make it one. Only an ass would count the tail as a leg.

  13. Re:Technically... by jcr · · Score: 2, Funny

    No, but when the Japanese use European loan words incorrectly, they're wrong.

    Good thing there are people like you to set them straight! Why don't you go there and try to make them comply with your standards?

    -jcr

    --
    The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
  14. Re:Buyer Beware! by royallthefourth · · Score: 4, Funny

    You'll have to pardon my prejudice if I don't take culinary advice from someone named TubeSteak

  15. Re:So technically by Splab · · Score: 3, Funny

    How much is a gigabyte then?

  16. Re:Technically... by Tablizer · · Score: 2, Funny

    Their stated intent is to document, record and communicate the language they find through actual usage.

    i don't think them fucken bastards really wanna do shit like that.
           

  17. Re:post by frenchgates · · Score: 4, Funny

    There has to be some kind of award that this post deserves. (Not to mention the girlfriend.) Mod this up. Is there an 'amusingly horrid' designation?

    --
    Syntax error: loose != lose, affect != effect, then!=than
  18. Re:post by Gulthek · · Score: 2, Funny

    Now I feel like one of the van eck phreakers from Cryptonomicon.

  19. Magic by jDeepbeep · · Score: 5, Funny

    Because that's just what any employer wants to hear, more details about their employees' bowel movements!

    I've found there are two magic words, that when said together, sequentially, cause the listener to not care any further why you are going to not make it in to the office today.

    Word 1: Explosive
    Word 2: Diarrhea

    --
    Reply to That ||
  20. Re:post by BaronHethorSamedi · · Score: 4, Funny

    Or how about '-1, Too Informative'?