Tuna liver

Dear all,

last week the fish department in one of the larger supermarkets had a real huge red tunafish (about 2 meters long!) and next to it, there was a product unknown to me. The salesperson told me it was actually the liver from that giant tuna and argued that it had simply to be pan-fried with some parsley and garlic ("une petite persillade").

As both my wife and I love tuna and (calves!) liver and as we are always into culinary adventures, I bought some, and I have to admit that the taste and texture were absolutely superb: tender, juicy, with only a slight bitter touch... almost foie gras like...

The bad news: we woke up the next morning and were sick (skin rash, headaches plus a few others symptoms you can easily imagine...).

As I am convinced that the liver was fresh, I am intrigued by the following question: could it possibly be that tuna liver is not meant to be consumed by humans... as the only references in google refer to it as being used for... cat food?

If anyone has a clou, please let me know...

Best regards

Yves

PS: no, we won't have pedigree pal for dinner tonight

As liver is the 'Garbage Filter' in any creature's body...I'd suspect that you got one that was doing a good job. The rash sounds like 'chloracne' & the other symptoms are in line with a dose of industrial toxins.... PCBs or some form of covalent chlorine. I'm no expert & There may be a chemist or two on this NG who can give you a more accurate assesment... hope you are feeling better... If you are worried about toxic build up, a little activated charcoal & some high fiber food suppliments can help clean you out.

Cheers Mathew

Dear all,

last week the fish department in one of the larger supermarkets had a real huge red tunafish (about 2 meters long!) and next to it, there was a product unknown to me. The salesperson told me it was actually the liver from that giant tuna and argued that it had simply to be pan-fried with some parsley and garlic ("une petite persillade").

As both my wife and I love tuna and (calves!) liver and as we are always into culinary adventures, I bought some, and I have to admit that the taste and texture were absolutely superb: tender, juicy, with only a slight bitter touch... almost foie gras like...

The bad news: we woke up the next morning and were sick (skin rash, headaches plus a few others symptoms you can easily imagine...).

As I am convinced that the liver was fresh, I am intrigued by the following question: could it possibly be that tuna liver is not meant to be consumed by humans... as the only references in google refer to it as being used for... cat food?

If anyone has a clou, please let me know...

Best regards

Yves

PS: no, we won't have pedigree pal for dinner tonight

As liver is the 'Garbage Filter' in any creature's body...I'd suspect that you got one that was doing a good job. The rash sounds like 'chloracne' & the other symptoms are in line with a dose of industrial toxins.... PCBs or some form of covalent chlorine. I'm no expert & There may be a chemist or two on this NG who can give you a more accurate assesment... hope you are feeling better... If you are worried about toxic build up, a little activated charcoal & some high fiber food suppliments can help clean you out.

Cheers Mathew

You might look at:

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Some animal livers such as polar bear,seal, tuna, etc. contain extremely high concentrations of Vitamin A. Even eating one meal of polar bear liver produces extreme toxic effects from the massive overdose of Vitamin A you get. I do not have information about how much tuna liver you would have to eat to produce illness. The Merck Manual, 7th ed. does report: "Within a few hours of ingestimg several million units of vitami A in polar bear or seal liver, arctic explorers developed drowsiness, irritability, headache, and vomiting, with subsquent peeling of skin."

Unfortunately I have not found an analysis for the vitamin A content in tuna liver, so it is not possible to say if one meal of it would cause problems. However, having tuna liver listed in the report with the URL above makes one wonder.

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I'm sure glad I didn't read this while I was eating dinner. >8^P~~~|

Tom S

I did find the below in a report from Micronesia.

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Vitamin A results The retinol content ranged from 3200 µg/100g in the lidoi parrot fish to 204,012 µg/100g in the yellowfin tuna liver. A 60-gram portion (about 3 tablespoons), which was the average weight for the yellowfin tuna liver for the sample, would provide over 200 times the daily estimated requirements of a non-pregnant, non-breastfeeding woman.

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I do not know where the toxic effects start to show up, but a single 3 tablespoon serving of yellowfn tuna liver would require you to swallow

200 vitamin pills containing one recommended daily dose of Vitamin A to equal the A in the tuna liver.

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Now that was a pretty accurate description of all the symptoms we developed, especially the peeling of skin (which I did not mention in my first post). Feeling pretty happy that I am not an arctic explorer!

Yves