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From the NYT:

Tuna's Red Glare? It Could Be Carbon Monoxide
By JULIA MOSKIN

BUYERS of fresh tuna, whether at the sushi bar or the supermarket, often
look for cherry-red flesh to tell them that the fish is top-quality. But it
has become increasingly likely that the fish is bright red because it has
been sprayed with carbon monoxide.

The global seafood trade has expanded so much over the last decade that
tuna, once a seasonal delicacy, is available year-round. But getting it to
consumers while it still looks fresh is difficult. Tuna quickly turns an
unappetizing brown (or chocolate, as it is called in the industry), whether
it is fresh or conventionally frozen and thawed.

Carbon monoxide, a gas that is also a component of wood smoke, prevents the
flesh from discoloring. It can even turn chocolate tuna red, according to
some who have seen the process.

People in the seafood industry estimate that 25 million pounds of treated
tuna, about 30 percent of total tuna imports, were brought into the United
States last year, mostly from processors in Southeast Asia. Retailers in the
United States buy it already treated.

The Food and Drug Administration says the process is harmless. But Japan,
Canada and the countries of the European Union have banned the practice
because of fears that it could be used to mask spoiled fish.

Carbon monoxide preserves only the color of the fish, not its quality.
Suppliers and retailers who use the treated fish say the process allows them
to sell high-quality, flash-frozen fish that still looks good enough to eat.
Jerry Bocchino, an owner of Pescatore, a fish store in Grand Central Market
in New York, said that his sales of tuna have tripled since he switched to
the treated kind two months ago.

"With fresh tuna, you're always racing the clock to keep the color and keep
it from spoiling," Mr. Bocchino said. "And once it turns brown, no one wants
to buy it. People love the color of this stuff."

Tim Lauer, a seafood dealer in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, said that most
sushi bars and supermarkets there have switched to the product since it was
introduced in the late 1990's. "I've lost all my sushi customers for tuna,
since I won't sell it," he said.

Just because a slice of tuna is brown, it does not mean it is not fresh. And
other factors determine the color, including the fat content, species and
cut. The finest fresh bluefin, which sells for up to $40 a pound at Tokyo's
wholesale fish markets, is not a deep red but a pale pink because of the
fine web of white fat that permeates the red flesh. Top-quality toro is
often a brownish red.

But for most consumers around the world, vendors say, lollipop-red flesh
signals freshness and quality. Tuna treated with carbon monoxide is bright
red when first defrosted, and fades within a couple of days to a watermelon
pink. But "you could put it in the trunk of your car for a year, and it
wouldn't turn brown," said one sales representative at Anova Foods, a
distributor in Atlanta, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The use of carbon monoxide in food is hardly new, as any barbecue or smoked
salmon fan should know. (Wood smoke contains carbon monoxide.) But the gas
used by many overseas producers, although tasteless, is more concentrated;
it can be as much as 100 percent carbon monoxide, said Bill Kowalski, an
owner of Hawaii International Seafood.

Complete story he http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/06/dining/06TUNA.html?hp

Jack Gas