A pufferfish is set to be auctioned at an early morning fish auction in Shimonoseki, Japan (Image: Reuters)
The Health director-general of Malaysia has stated that puffer fish containing toxins are not allowed, after an elderly woman died from consuming the fish
An elderly woman died in Malaysia last week after she and her husband consumed puffer fish. The 83-year old woman and her husband purchased the puffer fish from a fish seller who visits their village in Kampung Chamek and fell ill after consuming it.
Her 84-year-old husband is also currently in intensive care after having eaten the same dish. The octogenarian woman, Lim Siew Guan, fried the fish for lunch and soon after she ate the dish she experienced breathing difficulties and shivers. Her husband also faced similar difficulties later.
Talking to Malaysia-based newspaper The Star, the couple’s daughter Ng Ai Lee, 51, said her father had unknowingly purchased the fish from the fishmonger and said the couple did not have previous knowledge of side effects of consuming puffer fish.
“My parents have been buying fish from the same fishmonger for many years so my father did not think twice about it. He would not have knowingly bought something so deadly to eat and put their lives in danger,” Lee was quoted as saying by the Star.
Lee and her brother found out that their parents fell ill through WhatsApp messages being shared on the family WhatsApp groups. They are residents of Kuala Lumpur and started for Kluang but they were informed by their other elder brother that her mother had passed.
Lee called on the government to regulate the sale of puffer fish to prevent any future such incidents.
The doctors in their report said Guan died due to toxins in the puffer fish which caused food poisoning with neurological manifestation resulting in respiratory failure and irregular heart rate, the Star reported.
Lee’s father is still in a coma. She said doctors told her that he father will not be the same even if he pulls through this ordeal due to his age. “I hope my parents’ experience can create more awareness among the public about consuming such fish or food with high levels of toxins. It is frustrating to know that people knowingly consume puffer fish,” she told the Star.
Meanwhile, Johor health and unity committee chairman, Ling Tian Soon, warned the public that consuming puffer fish without cleaning it properly could result in such accidents. It can cause severe illness and even lead to deaths.
Soon pointed out that in Japan, only highly qualified chefs are allowed to serve the fish because they know how to remove the toxins. He said the Johor state government will investigate the regulation and enforcement of laws against the sale of puffer fish.
Four days after the incident, Health Director-General of Malaysia, Tan Sri Dr. Noor Hisham Abdullah, confirmed that puffer fish containing dangerous toxins are not allowed to be sold in Malaysia. The sale of the fish was controlled under the Malaysian Fisheries Development Authority Act 1972, and section 13 of the Food Act 1983 which bars the sale of food that is poisonous, harmful, or injurious to health.
He also pointed out that between 1985 and March 2023, there have been 58 puffer fish poisoning incidents involving 18 deaths in the country.
He, however, did point to a 2019 survey by the Food Safety and Quality Division of the Health Ministry, which showed 86% of the respondents, which comprised the public, fishmongers, fishermen and cooks, had sufficient knowledge on the dangers of consuming puffer fish.
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