Optima Foods is raising thousands of fugu fish in the town of Ainan, Ehime Prefecture. (Photo: Optima Foods Corp)

Nontoxic takifugu successfully bred

JAPAN
Wednesday, November 18, 2009, 00:30 (GMT + 9)

The highly prized ''torafugu'' blowfish can be deadly if prepared by an untrained chef. Now, aquaculture company Optima Foods Corp has discovered a way to make this delicacy nontoxic.

In the town of Ainan, Ehime Prefecture, the firm has farmed 50,000 non-poisonous ''fugu'' of the Takifugu rubripes species. They became available for sale online last month.

Optima Foods launched around 2006, but its ''aquaculture site deep in a mountain'' was unsuccessful because it proved unable to devise the correct method to raise the fish properly. This has recently changed, and the company has lowered its costs as well, Kyodo News reports.

No natural sea water is used at the land-based aquaculture pond. The “sea water” is concocted by combining salt and minerals with underground water circulated in tanks.

This sort of business is rare in Japan because water quality management and water-circulating facilities necessitate high-level technologies, according to the Fisheries Agency.

''Water is what we have the most trouble with,'' said Optima Foods President Toshiyasu Yoshimura.

On the plus side, artificial sea water is more hygienic than natural sea water. On the other hand, manufacturing about 1,100 tonnes of artificial sea water – the amount necessary to breed takifugu, is very expensive.

To afford it, Yoshimura slashed the advertising budget totaling an annual JPY 5 million (USD 55,883) to cut costs by two-thirds. He also devised a technique to feed the fish without damaging the quality of the water.
    
''We reduced assorted feed and increased the living prey of sand eels. Droppings became solid for easy recovery, and the maintenance of water quality has become easy,'' he said.

Unhealthy takifugu are transferred other tanks to keep the population healthy. Also, the population of about 10,000 a year rose to 50,000 this year, and their size and weight are larger than sea-bred fish: each one weighs over 1kg. At the same time, land-raised takifugu cannot compete in price with the sea-raised variety, which is ten per cent cheaper.

Yoshiyuki Matsuda, master chef at Shichiraku restaurant in Matsuyama started buying Optima Foods’ fish earlier this year.

The Takifugu are sold in Matsuyama, capital of Ehime Prefecture, Tokyo and Kochi prefectures.

By Natalia Real
editorial@fis.com
www.fis.com

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