Be wary of fillets of bassa

Look yummy, but steer clear of them. Don't make me go and grab 'em from your hands!

A few months ago, before I left for Korea, my mother sent me a cautionary email about the fillet of Basa (or pangasius/panga).

The pangasius is an Asian fish that's now found in North American grocery stores, usually sold for around $10. Quite cheap, right? Makes you want to grab a few, since they look pretty good if that picture up there is any indication. But, I repeat, steer clear of them. What follows is... well, yuck.

The pangasius is an intensively industrially grown fish from Vietnam (the Mekong region, more specifically). The Mekong is one of the most polluted rivers on the planet. The pangae are infected by venom and bacteria (arsenic, toxic industrial residue, etc), contaminated metals, polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB), DDT, chlorate, human growth hormones, hexachlorociloxane, isomers (HCHs) and hexachlorobenzene (HCB). They are fed with dead fish, bone residue, manioc (South American flour), and soy and grain residue. (source) Obviously it's clear this isn't... er, a healthy food choice for fish. In fact, it looks a lot like what the mad cows were fed: they were fed with dead cows, remember?

What the pangae are eating is totally outside of any judicial regulation. They grow four times faster than normal pangae, and they're even injected with human urine. YUMMY! Yep, a few scientists have found that if you inject female pangae with feminine hormones derived from dehydrated urine from pregnant women, the female pangasius would produce her eggs faster and in greater quantity, which would not happen in a natural habitat. With these hormones, the female panga is able to produce 500,000 eggs in one go. Indeed, this succulent-looking fish is therefore a succulent-looking fish with growth and reproduction hormones produced by a Chinese pharmaceutical company coursing through it. Again, I say YUM.

By buying this fish to eat, we are therefore contributing to the vicious circle, allowing these kinds of unscrupulous businesses to benefit from their gross products. These fish are being sold by big-name sellers (we're talking IGA, Metro, Costco, the likes) who don't know (or choose to ignore) that they're selling contaminated products.

Note: Of course, these fish also end up in by-products such as surimi, canned fish, and most probably in canned dog and cat food.