Detail in Aldi shopper's photo prompts stark warning over popular supermarket item
Although perfectly safe to eat, imported prawns can carry a potentially devastating disease.
An Aussie Aldi customer who questioned why a prawn product sold at the supermarket comes with a warning that it's "not to be used as bait" likely didn't realise the seriousness of the issue at hand.
"Why not?" the woman asked, sharing a photo of the bait warning on a price tag for Aldi's Ocean Royale brand raw prawn cutlets to a Facebook group for Aldi lovers. "What will happen if I do?"
The shopper soon found out, like most imported prawn products sold in Australian supermarkets, Aldi's prawn cutlets could be carrying a highly contagious virus that could have devastating effects on our local aquaculture industry.
"It may introduce a disease into the waterways," responded one group member to the woman's questions.
"Yep, marine biologist here. The spread of disease from raw prawns is the reason," another Aldi fan confirmed.
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"Because white spot is a virus that will decimate our local prawn farms," explained someone else. "It's not killed by freezing, so while they are safe to eat, they are not OK to use as bait."
It's not just Aldi prawns that shouldn't be used as bait when fishing, as imported prawns available at both Woolworths and Coles carry a similar warning. "Attention: For human consumption only. Not to be used as bait or feed for aquatic animals," reads a packet of raw prawns from Vietnam on the Woolies website.
What is white spot?
According to the NSW Department of Primary Industries, white spot is a highly contagious viral disease affecting crustaceans, including prawns, crabs and lobsters. The disease is caused by a virus known as white spot syndrome and has previously been detected in some imported, uncooked prawns.
While prawns carrying the virus are indeed perfectly "safe to eat", and do not pose a threat to human health or food safety, if a prawn carrying the virus were to get into the waterways, it could easily spread, leading to mass mortality events for local crustacean farmers. "We need help from Australia's fishing community to ensure that the virus that causes white spot is not introduced to waterways through infected prawns," the Department says.
"Outbreaks of white spot can have devastating impacts on aquaculture businesses and potentially harm popular commercial and recreational fishing areas."
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