Mangaluru: “Latjunus Bohar, called as red snapper contains toxin in its head and it is heat resistant, so the fish lovers should stay away from this fish and the concerned people should take care that red snapper and puffer fish should not reach the people,” said food and civil supplies Minister U T Khader.

He was speaking in a meeting with the health, food, experts and fisheries college representatives regarding the recent incident which took place in the city, in which more than 150 people had admitted in hospital after eating the head of red snapper.

“Fish preserving centres should take extra care in this matter. At any cost these fishes should not reach anyone else before it reaches the centres. The fish should be processed neatly so that no one gets affected by this. Poor people are being the victims of this, because they don’t have money to buy the quality fishes which are costlier than these fishes,” he said.

He further said that if any cases reported in future then the fish processing centres will be held responsible for this. Food and Safety officials should start creating awareness regarding this matter.

Deputy Commissioner K G Jagadeesh said that no toxinous parts of the fish should reach the public. Such parts should be used only as sources for the fertilisers.

“If no action taken towards the safety of the people, the such centres will be locked down without any mercy,” he added,