Quebecois restaurants and smoked salmon producers are saying “non” to AquAdvantage fish.
A dozen Canadian companies have pledged not to use genetically modified salmon since shipments were authorised to the country, according to tvanouvelles.
The biotechnology that makes its land-based AquAdvantage salmon grow faster through genetic engineering, sold 4.5 tonnes of its produce so far this year, with a Canadian buyer using their engineered salmon for ‘high-end sashimi line.’ But some are not convinced.
Canadian supermarkets become the first in the world to stock genetically modified fish in August but there isn’t a requirement there for the fish to be labelled as such.
Among the signatories are Quebec companies such as the Odessa fishmonger, the Aki Sushis chain, the restaurants Manitoba and Auguste, as well as distributor Les Aliments Saveurs du Monde, among others.
“I have no interest in this type of product for me or my company. We do not know enough about what it can produce as an effect,” said Gilles Côté, the owner of the smokehouse Bon Côté en Gaspésie, Gilles Côté, who also signed the pledge.
