Selling Diseased Food [Salmon] is Illegal

Media release – Safe Water Hobart, 18 April 2025

Following a letter to the Public Health Department in late March expressing their concerns about diseased salmon being sold illegally, Safe Water Hobart is perplexed at the response they received.

At the time of the original letter, it was clear that salmon from diseased pens were being harvested for human consumption. This was later substantiated by the Chief Veterinary Officer of the Natural Resources and Environment Department (NRE) and by Luke Martin, the former CEO of Salmon Tasmania. That is, this practice has now been confirmed by both government and industry.

Dr Frank Nicklason, physician and president of Safe Water Hobart, said,

“We had expected the Public Health Department to uphold the law, particularly considering the breach is so blatant.”

Government and Industry have defensively insisted that diseased fish are safe to eat, but they have not explained how the law that says they are unfit for human consumption does not apply.

The Food Act 2003 states that food is unsuitable if it is the product of a diseased animal, or an animal that has died other than by slaughter, and that a person must not sell food that is unsuitable. The Primary Produce Safety Act 2011 has almost identical wording.

“While we are not lawyers, our reading of this legislation is that selling food from diseased animals, including fish, is illegal,” Nicklason said.

Safe Water Hobart is concerned about industry self-regulation.

The NRE’s Chief Veterinary Officer stated in a letter to a Parliamentarian in early April that, “The use of moribund fish is for each company to determine in the context of their quality control systems”. And now, the Director of Public Health has said, “If the Department of Health is advised by NRE that unsuitable food has been supplied into the marketplace the Food Act 2003 can be used to manage the issue.”

Nicklason said, “We are astonished at the multiple layers of wilful defiance of the law and common sense. During such a mass mortality event is when the food for human consumption most needs to be regulated. And yet, allowing self-regulation by the salmon industry and by those who are supposed to regulate it, but are not, is simply unconscionable!”

“How many lawbreakers do you know that dob themselves in?” Dr Nicklason added.

“It is really quite extraordinary that the lack of transparency by government and industry meant that ordinary people had to do the detective work to uncover this information,” Nicklason said.