TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Food and Drug Monitoring Agency (BPOM) announced it had recalled imported and domestic parasite-infested canned mackerel products from the market.
“What’s clear is that we have recalled 22 million imported canned mackerel products,” said BPOM food security supervision deputy Suratmono today.
As previous reports suggest, BPOM discovered 138 batches of parasite-infested canned mackerels from 27 brands that were available to the public. 16 of them were imports while the remaining 11 were domestic products.
Read: List of 27 Worm-infested Mackerel Brands
Furthermore, Suratmono said that the agency had recalled 47 thousand cans of local mackerel brands that were potentially infested with worms.
The audit was the result of a joint inspection by the BPOM in tandem with the Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry and the Industry Ministry.
The initial discovery was made by BPOM while scrutinizing 541 samples of 66 brands sold nationwide. BPOM’s decision to take samples was triggered by the findings of worm-infested canned Farmer Jack Mackerel’s in Pekanbaru, Riau on Tuesday, March 20.
BPOM announced the parasites were identified as the Anisakis sp and that the mackerels used in the imported products did not originate from domestic seas.
M YUSUF MANURUNG