– I have become familiar with a part of the industry that I do not like and do not want to be a part of. Laila Sele Navikauskas was quality manager at Hardanger Seafood until September this year. At the salmon slaughterhouse at Bømlo, Navikauskas had the overall responsibility for internal controls, certification and sampling of the salmon. Yesterday, news was able to reveal that controls at Hardanger Seafood determined that a large batch of salmon from the farming company Lingalaks AS was of poor quality. While a fishing company milled the salmon and made animal feed from it, Hardanger Seafood packaged it as “superior”. Navikauskas warned about the poor quality. Together with several colleagues, they looked for salmon that was of good quality, but only found two or three pieces. – Wasn’t there a notification that the quality was bad? – Yes, it was notified at all stages. That was it. – Yet they were labeled as superior? – I was shocked when I read the article. I meant it was a crime. – Time is money and that’s where it gets lost, says Laila Sele Navikauskas. Photo: Frode Fjerdingstad / news The salmon was not bløgged well enough Before salmon is sold as food, it must be bløgged. That means cutting across the artery at the gills. The fish is then drained of blood. In Norway, there is a requirement that fish be bled before they are slaughtered and packed. If the fish is not bled correctly, the quality of the fish is affected. Then the fish becomes soft and discolored. Bløgging salmon Bløgging is cutting fish so that the blood runs off it. Raw salmon should not be sold for human consumption. In Norwegian aquaculture, there is a requirement that the fish is bled before it is slaughtered and packed. Correct bluing is important for the quality of the fish. Uncooked fish contains blood and gets bacterial growth more easily. Bløgging should take place when the fish is taken on board. It is important that the fish is bludgeoned alive. Then the pumping functions of the heart will help when the blood vessels have to be emptied. Do not cut the fish until it has been drained of blood. Dead-at-sea/self-dead fish must also be blued. If the fish has been dead for a long time, it is more difficult to bludgeon. Farmed fish must be anesthetized before being bled. The large batch of salmon that Hardanger Seafood received from the breeder Lingalaks AS was not bled correctly. – Then he was tormented and suffered a painful death, says Navikauskas. The trailers that drove the salmon discovered that the quality was not good enough, and together with Lingalaks AS they decided to destroy him. It was this batch of salmon that Kavikasukas notified, but she cannot guarantee the quality of previous batches of salmon. – Are you absolutely sure that bad fish will be sold and eaten? – I see fish on the market that I wouldn’t eat myself, says Navikauskas. – You do it? – Yes – Could you say from the past yourself? – I could discover it earlier. Absolutely. And there is something that bothers me, that I did not discover it. Picture of salmon from Hardanger Seafood. – Time is money and that’s where it went wrong Earlier this autumn, news revealed that there has been a mass death of salmon at the salmon giant Lerøy Seafood Group. It has sent shock waves through the salmon industry. – In the industry, there is too much focus on the fish being money, they also forget that it will end up on the dinner plate in people’s homes, says Kavikasukas. Laila Sele Navikauskas notified her employer that the fish was too bad. Now she has left Hardanger Seafood AS. Photo: Frode Fjerdingstad / news – This contributed to putting the entire industry in the corner of shame. Now we in the industry have to clean up, said CEO of Seafood Companies, Robert Holmøy Eriksson to news at the time. Having gone through the routines, Lingalaks AS, which bought the services from the bluefish boats, says that the salmon was not bluefished well enough in the case that Navikauskas reported. They went through the routines following the incident. Hardanger Seafood AS says they started production on 1 March this year: – This means that, including the run-in period, we had been operating for just under half a year when this incident occurred. In the period until she left, Laila functioned as quality manager, says the daily manager of Hardanger Seafood AS. – During this time, she has not disclosed to either the day-to-day manager or the production manager that there has been poor or insufficient blanching of fish. We refute the fact that defective bluefish of poor quality has gone out to consumers from our facility.
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– I see fish on the market that I wouldn’t eat myself – news Norway – Overview of news from different parts of the country
