The sushi-eating Japanese enjoy the highest life expectancy in the world. They have an impressive low rate of heart disease, thanks to their traditional low-fat diet.
Sushi – a Japanese dietary mainstay, is raw fish, also called sashimi, wrapped in seaweed with rice.
Regrettably, it’s now illegal in Ontario.
What? Come again?. How could a government make sushi illegal?
And what’s next? Is the government going to start freezing our salads?
The government, with no consultation from people in the sushi industry, has implemented a ban upon the use of raw fish in sushi.
The ban requires fish served in restaurants to be either cooked or frozen and then thawed before serving. This is to eradicate any organisms, eggs, or worms, they say.
The government is acting upon fear, not upon evidence.
“We in Ontario haven’t had any reports of diseases per se,” Karim Kurji, Ontario’s associate chief medical officer of health, told The Globe and Mail. “But our concern is to do this on a precautionary basis rather than react to a disease when it shows up.”
OK, hold on a second. A precautionary basis?
It seems that a new government trend is to implement regulations as a precautionary measure, as opposed to a reaction after something actually happens.
The government would be better off spending their money on trying to eradicate obesity in the country, instead of getting rid of a few tapeworms which we haven’t even been proven to exist.
Do we not have more important things to do than to quash a bit of culinary freedom with a mountain of regulation?
Canadians already eat so-called “dangerous” food every day.
Ever checked out where your ground beef or poultry comes from?
What do you really think is in hot dogs? It’s not a pretty sight.
So why should sushi chefs care if they have to cook or freeze their fish?
Freezing raw fish, according to most sushi chefs, kills the flavour and ruins their favourite dishes.
Chefs also argue that this decision should be left up to the consumer. People can take the miniscule risk for themselves.
If this law is enforced in Ontario it will hurt businesses in Centretown.
Perhaps the damage won’t be on the same level as in Toronto. A number of sushi restaurants in Centretown which serve raw fish will be affected.
This ban will likely affect higher-end sushi restaurants to a higher degree, as they tend to serve more raw fish.
People should have the power to be able to choose without the government making some brash decision for them. Until the government can prove that sushi is dangerous, they are over-regulating minuscule details of daily life.
It makes no sense to implement these regulations based upon fear and no facts.
Fear of an unlikely situation, such as someone getting sick from raw fish, is not a gateway for legislation.
The government should spend their money on more pressing health issues and concentrate on the bigger issues at hand.