The Nose Knows for Seafood Safety

Can FDA Smell a
Rotten Fish?

FDA has stated that some seafood from the Gulf of Mexico is safe to eat after the disastrous BP oil spill. Among the methods they use is the “sniff test” by an FDA organoleptic specialist’s nose to assess if seafood is safe to eat. Skeptics abound regarding a seafood safety expert sniffing fish. However, I can assure you that “the nose knows.” The one FDA course that I outright flunked during my 17 years at the Agency was the organoleptic analysis course for seafood safety. It was an entire week of constantly smelling fish. Those of us who flunked out went our separate ways from those who were equipped with a nose that knows. “Old man L.L.” was an excellent organoleptic specialist in the San Francisco District Laboratory when I worked there. The FDA’s organoleptic specialists really know their business. And their business is to use their nose to sniff fish to detect adulteration. They are highly trained and do it very well. And if I hadn’t flunked fish sniffing I might actually be doing it there with them. Read NPR’s interesting interview:

NPR Story

UPDATE: Read a Different Opinion

And FDA’s take on it all:

FDA Gulf Oil Spill Seafood Update

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