In January 1966, a South African ship caught fire at sea, initiating a maritime crisis that would span continents and decades. When the vessel finally docked in Bristol, England, firefighters pried open a smoking container, accidentally feeding oxygen to the smoldering cargo. The resulting conflagration raged unchecked for five days.
Just a little over a month later, a Liberian steamship caught fire near Rotterdam, igniting a nearby storage area packed with barrels of petrol before ultimately sinking. The month after that, a Danish ship caught fire off the coast of Long Beach, California. That incident injured three firefighters, killed a longshoreman, and caused over a million dollars in estimated damages.
The common denominator in each of these disasters was fishmeal—a dark yellow powder manufactured by drying and pulverizing fish. If left untreated, the material is notoriously prone to spontaneous combustion as it decays and oxidizes in transit.
According to a sweeping examination of historical news coverage conducted by The Outlaw Ocean Project, a Washington, D.C.-based investigative news organization, fishmeal’s extreme combustibility was linked to at least 90 ship and plant fires between the 1950s and the 1970s. For seafarers, marine insurers, and dock workers, the powder represented a persistent and terrifying hazard.
The Rise of Ethoxyquin
In 1967, American feed producer Cargill announced a chemical solution to the crisis: ethoxyquin.
Originally developed as a fire retardant to keep rubber tires from drying out and later applied as a chemical preservative on fruits and alfalfa, production of the potent antioxidant was rapidly ramped up for the maritime and agricultural sectors.
“Antioxidant treatment has made bulk handling an easy matter,” the director of the Canadian Department of Fisheries told an industry publication in 1966, arguing that the chemical treatment should be made mandatory for all international fishmeal shipments.
The intervention proved remarkably effective. By the 1970s, press-reported fires dropped sharply. According to data from the Liverpool Underwriters Association, annual ship fires plummeted from a typical average of 16 down to just five.
Recognizing its efficacy in preventing catastrophic disasters at sea, the U.S. Coast Guard imposed mandatory ethoxyquin treatment on fishmeal shipments by 1976. Three years later, the United Nations body overseeing global maritime activity officially recommended that fishmeal be treated with the chemical “to prevent spontaneous combustion.”
Growing Health Concerns and Scientific Alarm
Yet, solving one hazard uncovered another. Ethoxyquin is a recognized carcinogen.
“Toxic effects had been observed in laboratory animals fed high concentrations of ethoxyquin,” noted a 1969 research paper published by United Nations food and agriculture authorities.
As the chemical’s use expanded rapidly within animal feeds and the burgeoning aquaculture sector, a 1987 study by British researchers concluded that the additive “caused severe damage” and exhibited a potentially “carcinogenic effect” in laboratory rats. Decades later, in 2015, the European Food Safety Authority warned that an impurity within ethoxyquin known as p-phenetidine was capable of inducing mutations in genetic material.
While a definitive scientific consensus has remained elusive regarding whether it is safe for humans to consume farmed seafood raised on ethoxyquin-treated feed, several governments concluded the risks warranted strict regulatory action. In 2017, the European Commission suspended the authorization for ethoxyquin’s use in animal feed across the entire European Union.
Today, ethoxyquin is banned outright in the United Kingdom and across member states of the European Economic Area, including Norway, Iceland, and Liechtenstein. However, the chemical remains legally permitted within specified limits in animal feed across Australia, Japan, South Korea, and the United States.
Global Aquaculture and Legal Fallout
With more than half of the seafood consumed worldwide now originating from fish farms—and with the vast majority of those farmed species fed diets rich in fishmeal and fish oil—scrutinizing feed additives is essential for understanding potential contamination within the global food supply.
Although ethoxyquin is not banned in the United States, it has become the focal point of roughly half a dozen lawsuits, typically centered on allegations of false advertising. Several legal actions have targeted major seafood companies for marketing their products as “sustainable” despite containing the chemical, while others have spotlighted the environmental risks the additive poses to aquatic ecosystems.
In 2022, a New York resident filed a class-action lawsuit against Aldi Inc., a major German supermarket chain operating stores across the United States. The complaint alleged that the company’s Atlantic salmon products were deceptively labeled as “sustainable” despite relying on environmentally destructive practices. Citing the European Union’s strict ban and scientific studies linking ethoxyquin to elevated mortality rates and physical deformations in fish and crustaceans, the lawsuit argued that the chemical “poses a risk for aquatic life.” The case was eventually settled out of court.
That same year, residents of New York and California jointly sued Gorton’s Inc., a prominent seafood company, over the labeling of its frozen tilapia as “sustainably sourced” when the fish reportedly contained ethoxyquin. Like the Aldi litigation, this complaint cited both the EU ban and the ecological dangers posed to aquatic organisms, and it too concluded with an out-of-court settlement.
Regulatory oversight varies widely across international borders. In Canada, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency requires animal feeds containing ethoxyquin to display a label certifying that they meet legal residue limits. However, the agency does not specify how it tests feeds for the chemical, nor do its inspectors check whether residual ethoxyquin ultimately transfers into the final seafood products destined for consumers, according to the agency’s 2022 food inspection report.
Furthermore, a 2024 audit of the Canadian inspection body conducted by the European Union revealed that the agency completed only about 40 percent of its planned inspections, citing “systematic and significant under-delivery” in its seafood testing protocols.
Industry Shifts and Alternative Additives
In response to shifting global regulations and consumer pressures, major agribusiness corporations have adapted their supply chains. Cargill stated that it began assessing alternative antioxidants as early as 2005 and no longer uses ethoxyquin in its global salmon feed operations or in any market where the chemical lacks regulatory authorization. The company also noted that it did not originally develop the compound. Across the industry, feed makers have increasingly turned to natural alternatives, including rosemary extract and vitamin E compounds.
“More and more destinations are not accepting ethoxyquin, starting with our local Peruvian market,” said James Frank, managing director of the Peruvian fishmeal company MSICeres, during an industry webinar in 2022. Frank noted that 100 percent of Peru’s fishmeal exports to Europe, Canada, the United States, and Australia are now entirely ethoxyquin-free, a transition similarly mirrored by producers in the United Kingdom and Norway.
Despite these shifts, the most popular commercial alternative replacing ethoxyquin is butylated hydroxyanisole, commonly known as BHA. Favored by manufacturers for its lower cost and strong antioxidant performance compared to fully natural additives, BHA carries its own significant health concerns.
The U.S. National Toxicology Program identified BHA as “reasonably anticipated to be a human carcinogen” as early as 1991, and Japanese researchers published findings in 2008 showing that the chemical caused malignant tumors in laboratory rats.
Amid growing health and safety scrutiny, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced in February that it was launching a formal safety reassessment of BHA as a common food chemical preservative.
To meet the world’s growing demand for seafood, the aquaculture industry is projected to continue expanding. Whether through a transition away from carnivorous farmed species or the development of entirely novel fishmeal replacements, the sector faces ongoing challenges. For now, however, the global aquaculture and fishmeal industries find themselves navigating a difficult loop: pivoting away from deadly ship fires to a carcinogenic fire retardant, and subsequently toward alternative chemical additives carrying their own disputed safety profiles.