No fresh fish... vacuum-packed only

There is one thing that we have witnessed this summer: no supply of fresh fish at our fishmongers.
We only enjoyed lampuki for a limited period of time and finding swordfish has become a luxury. Up to some time ago, fish was considered a luxury afforded by the well-to-do, and now not even the well-to-do can buy fish because there is no fish to buy.
The situation is very dramatic indeed: last week the leading fishmonger in this island did not even have swordfish to sell. Not only that, but a couple of weeks before I bought swordfish which I put straight into the freezer, but when I thawed it in the refrigerator, I noticed that it turned green. Why is this? I was told that what we buy as ‘fresh’ swordfish is not fresh at all, but imported vacuum packed which, once opened, can never be frozen.
But where are the health authorities? Why don’t they inform the consumers that vacuum-packed food cannot be frozen? In case you had not noticed, even the meat that is being advertised as fresh is imported vacuum-packed from abroad, and cannot be put in the freezer.
The word ‘fresh’ has become a buzzword and I cannot understand how our shops are allowed to fool the consumer when advertising ‘fresh Irish ribeye’ or ‘fresh prawns’, when they are not fresh at all. There seems to be no definition of the word ‘fresh’ with the health authorities and anyone can carry on taking us for a ride and continue to sell fresh food when in fact it is not.
In our fish shops it is a common sight to see the sign ‘fresh fish’ and to be convinced by the sales attendant that the fish is fresh but then you discover that that fish is all imported, it is imported with ice around it and it is therefore not fresh and more seriously, it cannot be frozen.
This abuse is rampant in our shops and as you know, fish and meat are not cheap nowadays and throwing away meat and fish is throwing away a lot of money.
I have come to the conclusion that fresh fish does not exist anymore in this country.
First of all I am told that the fresh fish caught in our waters is finding its way overseas or into hotels and restaurants before it reaches our shops; and secondly, this summer bore witness to how scarce fresh fish has become from our shops. And when I say scarce I am not referring to cippullazza (rock-fish) or other expensive fish, but even what was until some months ago considered common, such as swordfish.
But it seems that the health and the fisheries authorities have not noticed this slump in the market and neither have
they noticed that the consumer is being fooled into buying fresh fish or meet when in fact it is not. Neither did they have the decency to teach the public that vacuum packed meat or fish, a new phenomenon in this country, is to be treated differently from fresh produce.
Many of us thought that the European Union membership would bring a bonanza of varieties of fish and meats to this country and rightly so. It is true
that we witnessed a larger
variety of imported meats but it is also true that such meats are being sold as ‘fresh’ when in fact they are not.
My butcher told me that the veal, for example, is imported from Italy and that it is six months old when it is slaughtered in Italy and that it get into Malta five or six days later. It is vacuum packed and once the vacuum is removed, it can never be put in the freezer as it will turn green. This is the ‘fresh veal’ that we are getting here. On the other hand, in Malta you can never find fresh veal: first of all because the supply is very limited and the veal is taken by the butchers and their families and secondly, what we sell as local veal is more the size of a cow than of the veal.
The same thing is happening with fish. Most of it is being imported ‘vacuum-packed’ or in boxes with flaky ice surroung the fish, and the consumer is being sold ‘fresh fish’ when most of it is imported from Libya and North Africa.
The European Union has its Common Fisheries Policy wherein each country is obliged to register its catches. I wonder how many catches of fish are we registering because the end result is definitely that the consumer is finding no fresh fish on the market. In the outside waters a lot of business takes place and the fish catches of any member state can never be truthful but notwithstanding this does not give the authorities a blank cheque to lay back and relax and pretend as if nothing is happening.
We all know what happened to the tuna catches and how, because of the illegalities committed by Malta and elsewhere, the tuna season was closed abruptly by the EU Commission. This is an industry which generates millions not to the Maltese coffers but to the people who are in this industry: lest we forget, the fish farms surrounding our country are given for free without paying for using our seas and the profits never see our shores. It is thanks to foreign Non-governmental Organisations that this abuse was brought to light.
We demand explanations from the health and fisheries authorities as to what is fresh, how to deal with vacuum packed food, whether the consumers ought to be informed that the fish or meat is vacuum packed, and what measures are they taking to guarantee the supply of fresh fish to the consumers.
We pay good money for meat and fish; and the least we expect is to stop being fooled and get our money’s worth.

Allow me to thank the PRO of the water services corporation to the prompt responses after last week’s experience. I hope that the procedure for water and electricity installations be changed so that the consumer will be treated with respect. My thanks go also the Roderick Agius from the Ministry.

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