After huge discussions and disappointment by fish eaters in Southern states mainly, The Goans displayed the threat of presence of formalin in their food. The average consumption of fishes has dropped significantly in Goa. Being a coastal region, majority of Goan food comprises of fish and with the rising distrust in the food, having formalin in it, Goans drastically reduced the consumption of fishes, which has left drastic impact on the state and its incomes which is mostly through tourism.
Chief Minister, Manohar Parikkar in a meet assured the Goans that he personally is taking care of the issue and he has his watch on the subject. “I was keeping quiet initially, but since fish is a staple food, finally I had to say yesterday (Saturday) ‘Don’t worry, I am monitoring [it] myself’, said Mr. Parrikar.“I think that was required because people stopped eating fish. How can Goans live without fish?,” Mr. Parrikar said at a function.
Formalin is a preservative that is used for fishes. Mild coating of formalin is done to the fishes to prevent the decaying and to maintain the shine. Formalin is a general preservative which is used to preserve dead animals including human carcass to delay the decay, but it's reportedly harmful for human consumption and may cause malignancy and associated problems if taken for longer period.
Reportedly, AP is one of the states where formalin presence in fish has caught a lot attention. In sequence of this, many other coastal regions found the traces of formalin in the fishes. Generally, fishes are freezed for transportation which also saves the fish from decaying. Generally preservative are not used in fresh water fishes only icing is done or insulated trucks are used which maintain deep freezing temperatures. Formalin is a source which gives more protection from decaying and hence some traders switched to it. Due to absence of any mechanism to control such adulteration it is difficult for the authorities to monitor the ill-trade. It is difficult to detect formalin in the fishes unless it goes to labrotory, but recently few organizations claim to have found a cheaper and easier way to detect the presence of such chemicals.
