LEDA at Harvard Law School LEDA at Harvard Law School
Such Stuff as Dreams are Made On:
The Story of Caviar, from Prehistory to the Present
Meredith B. Gordon
Class of 2003
Food and Drug Law
Professor Hutt
Winter Term, 2002
Course Paper
ABSTRACT:
This paper is an exploration of caviar consumption and legal regulation, from prehistory to the present. It will examine the roots of caviar’s popularity, the types of sturgeon and varieties of caviar that currently exist, and the process used to make caviar. It will also address the FDA’s labeling and safety regulations of the caviar industry, the dangers facing the sturgeon and the world’s supply of caviar, as well as the conservationist moves by CITES to protect the sturgeon and caviar stocks. This paper will also examine the complexities of national and international regulation of caviar and the issues raised by changes in food additive regulation policies and international relations.
I. A MODERN PORTRAIT OF CAVIAR
Caviar is to dining what a sable coat is to a girl in evening dress.
~ Ludwig Bemelmans
Scene: A posh, duplex apartment on Manhattan’s fashionable Upper West Side. New Year’s Day brunch. Well dressed guests mill about, holding glasses, small plates, cocktail napkins.
Action: A small clump of guests hovers around one particular hors d'oeuvre table. On the table sits an empty bowl, nestled in a larger bowl of crushed ice, which the hovering guests eye conspicuously, while trying to look nonchalant. The waiter notices that the bowl is empty, picks it up, carries it to the kitchen, and returns with it filled to the brim. Suddenly, the guests pounce, falling upon the bowl, deflecting the competition with sharp tongues and sharper elbows, each one intent on claiming the bowl’s contents for himself. What could cause this social faux pas? What could make mature, sophisticated adults revert so to such base, animalistic behavior?
Caviar, of course. What else?
The trial is closed and the verdict is execution.
In a galvanized bath the Kremlin cadavar
demands caviar for breakfast, in short supply, soluble liver.
~ Lev Vladimirovich Loseff
The popularity of caviar is hardly a new phenomenon. The dish dates back to ancient times and has been prized in almost every culture across the globe. The sturgeon, the fish whose roe alone under FDA rulings may be classified as caviar, is a prehistoric fish that has been around for 250 million years, surviving since the time of, and outlasting, the dinosaurs.[1] “Fossil remains dating from that time have been found on the Baltic coast and elsewhere.”[2] The sturgeon are bottom-dwellers, with sensitive barbells and pointed snouts, “scaleless except for five rows of large, pointed, platelike scales running along the top and sides of the body. Their exoskeleton is part bone and part cartilage, placing them midway between sharks and bony fish.”[3] Sturgeon are anadromous fish, meaning that they live in saltwater but return to freshwater to spawn.[4] Twenty-four major species of sturgeon still exist, living mainly in the Caspian Sea, although their numbers have been negatively affected by pollution and over-fishing.[5] Sturgeon can live to be over 100 years old and can grow to weigh over 3,000 pounds.[6] This amazing fish has more chromosomes than man, and is more adaptable to its environment.[7]
References to caviar in literature and art date back almost as far as the sturgeon itself. It has been suggested that by 2400 B.C. ancient coastal Egyptians and Phoenicians had learned to salt and pickle fish eggs to make them last through war, famine or trips at sea. Bas-reliefs at the Necropolis near the Sakkara Pyramid showing fishermen catching fish and removing their eggs support this theory.[8] According to Aristotle, the ancient Greeks were no strangers to caviar either, as “lavish Greek banquets would end with trumpet fanfare announcing the arrival of heaping platters of caviar garnished with flowers.”[9] Some claim it was the Turkish who first coined the word “khavyar” from which the English term “caviar” originates. Others suggest the term “caviar” comes from the Persian word “chav-jar” which translates loosely to “cake of power” or “piece of power.” The Persians considered caviar to be a medicine for a multitude of illnesses, and would eat it in stick form to give them energy and stamina.[10] [11] In the 1240s the first written record of the word “khavyar” was found in the writings of Batu Khan (grandson of Ghengis Khan), while the word first appeared in English print in 1591.[12] [13]
Although not known for their culinary prowess, Medieval English society also held the caviar-producing sturgeon in the greatest respect. King Edward II proclaimed the sturgeon to be a “royal fish” and decreed that all sturgeon caught in England belonged to the imperial treasury and must be given to the monarch or the gentry.[14] In fact, by the middle ages many countries’ sovereigns had claimed the rights to sturgeon. In Russia, China, Denmark, and France, as well as in England, “fishermen had to offer the catch to the sovereign, often for fixed rewards. In Russia and Hungary, the sections of rivers considered suitable for fishing the great sturgeon (the Beluga as we know it) were the subject of special royal grants.”[15]
Caviar was enjoyed in France as early as 1553 according to Rabelais and his work Faits et dits Heroiques du Grand Pantagruet (1553). Meanwhile, the Larousse Gastronomique cites la Dictionnaire du Commerce (1741), mentioned the dish as well: “kavia is beginning to be known in France where it is not despised at the best tables.”[16] Of course, the Russian czars must be mentioned in any discussion of the early popularity of caviar. As the main consumers of caviar in Russia, the czars levied a caviar tax on sturgeon fishermen. It is said that Nicholas II was given 11 tons of the finest caviar each year by his fisherman subjects.[17] The caviar Nicholas II so enjoyed, the small golden eggs of the sterlet sturgeon, were so popular with Russian nobility that the species is all but extinct today.[18]
Before over-fishing in the “new world” almost obliterated their stock of sturgeon as well, many American states also produced caviar by the end of the 19th century. “Until 1900 the United States produced about 150,000 pounds of caviar per year. Most of this domestic caviar came from the Delaware River at Penns Gover, New Jersey. At one time, Hudson River sturgeon were so plentiful that their flesh was referred to as “Albany beef.”[19] This plentiful caviar was not considered the “champagne wishes” delicacy it is today. Sold at a penny a pound, American caviar was served in saloons like modern day beer-nuts. It was hoped that the saltiness of the dish would make bar patrons thirstier and bigger spenders on beer. Some patrons even put caviar in their beer, creating what was called “Albany beer.”[20]
Caviar was nothing new in the “new world” as Native American mothers used to wean their babies on sturgeon roe, but it did gain in popularity throughout the nineteenth century.[21] As US production and exportation of caviar increased, so too did America’s appetite for the more prestigious – and what was thought to be superior tasting – imported Russian caviar. This led to a fair amount of fraud, as during the “caviar boom” at the end of the nineteenth century, “much of the [American caviar] harvest shipped to Europe was imported right back to the United States again, labeled as the more coveted ‘Russian caviar.’ ... In 1900, the state of Pennsylvania issued a report which estimated that 90 percent of the Russian caviar sold in Europe actually came from the US.”[22] This would not be the last time that fraud and caviar went hand in hand. (For more on caviar and fraud, see Sections VI and IX, below.)
Some people wanted champagne and caviar
when they should have had beer and hot dogs.
~ Dwight D. Eisenhower
Of the twenty-four species of sturgeon existing worldwide today, only three types supply caviar: the beluga, the oscetra, and the sevruga.[23] The beluga, a strong, nomadic fish, is the largest of the sturgeon family, averaging 4 meters in length and weighing over 1000kg.[24] It is very rare, and only 120 or fewer fish are caught annually. [25] The roe in a beluga sturgeon can equal 15% of its body weight, and varies in color from light gray to dark gray. The largest of the three types, beluga roe has fine, delicate skin, considerable texture, and a visible “eye” or target in the middle of each egg or “berry.” [26] [27]
The oscetra, which is less rare than the beluga, is a medium sized sturgeon measuring 2 meters long and weighing up to 200kg. It uses its elongated snout to vacuum plants and small sea life up from the sea bed.[28] Oscetra roe ranges in color from “dark brown to gray and it is often shaded with gold. The roes have a unique taste of hazel nuts and a fine layer on the surface.”[29]
The sevruga is the smallest of the sturgeon family, measuring only 1.5m long and weighing up to 25kg, with a small, upward pointing snout and distinct, diamond-shaped exoskelatal plates.[30] “Its roes have a fine surface and their colour ranges from light to dark gray. The roes are small and they are popular for their characteristic taste and smell.” As the least rare of the three types of sturgeon and the least expensive of the three major types of caviar, the sevruga is also the most popular variety.[31]
On a side note, the sterlet is worth mentioning, as this variety of sturgeon was once extremely popular with the czars of Russia, and its “small-grained golden caviar” was considered the finest available.[32] However, this variety of fish is now very close to extinction, and the sterlet sturgeon and sterlet caviar are almost never seen.[33]
Caviar is not only categorized by the fish species from which it is obtained, but is also graded based on the size, color, fragrance, flavor, uniformity, and consistency of the berry, as well as the gleam, firmness, and vulnerability of the roe skin.
Caviar comes from the virgin sturgeon,
The virgin
sturgeon is a very fine fish,
The virgin sturgeon needs no
urging,
That's why caviar is my dish.
~ The Virgin Sturgeon (rugby song)
The production of caviar from mere sturgeon eggs can be a complicated and delicate matter, refined over years and trusted to the most accomplished experts. However, the first parts of the process can strike one as harsh and barbaric. The sturgeon are caught in large nets, and guided to shore by boats and winches. Mature, female sturgeon are stunned by a blow to the head with a wooden club, taken on shore, and stunned again. An incision is made in the belly of the sturgeon, and the whole egg sack is removed. In Russia, the sack is removed before the fish dies; in Iran, the fish is killed before the sack is removed.[34]
The egg sack is placed on a wire sieve, used to separate the berries of different sizes. Once they are rinsed, the berries are classified by size and color, and salted by a Master Salt Blender. The best berries are treated as malossol meaning literally “little salt” – not more than five percent by weight of salt is added to these eggs.[35]
Before 1914, the salt used for preparing caviar was taken from the delta of the Volga River in the Astrakhan Steppe in Russia. Now it would take seven years of dry storage to remove the chlorine from the salt of this polluted river, so salt from other rivers in Russia is used. Iran recently began purchasing salt from Russia to ensure its caviar product is as consistent as that of Russia.[36] The salt both acts as a preservative and also helps to cure and make firmer the berries, which when raw have almost no texture at all. Iranian caviar producers also add borax (Na2B407 1OH20) to the mix, to give the caviar a “softer and sweeter finish.”[37] Borax is considered an illegal food additive in the United States but the FDA has recently changed its policy on borax in caviar. (For more on this topic, see Sections VII and VIII, below). After the addition of the salt (and in Iran, the borax), the excess liquid is removed and the caviar is packaged and ready to be distributed.
Alternate methods of caviar production include pasteurization and pressing. Those in the know have opposed the pasteurization process, saying that it negatively and “drastically changes the flavor of the finished caviar.”[38] Pressed caviar or pajusnaya, is another alternative method of caviar production used for overly mature or broken eggs. A thick, salty, marmalade-consistency spread, it is made by gathering the broken or otherwise undesirable eggs in a cheesecloth sack, compressing the sack from all sides, and draining the excess liquid.[39] While lacking the prestige of the more conventionally prepared caviar, this spread is less expensive, and is quite popular in Russia and Greece.
V. FDA REGULATIONS: LABELING AND HACCP
Fame is not really for a daily diet, that's not what fulfills you. It warms you
a bit but the warming is temporary. It's like caviar, you know - it's good to
have caviar but not when you have it every meal every day.
~ Marilyn Monroe
Current FDA regulations on caviar labeling and processing are rather strict, although until 1966, any fish roe that could be colored black could be called caviar. This ended when the Food and Drug Administration defined the product, and established rules for its labeling.[40] Current labeling regulations are as follows:
“The name ‘caviar’ unqualified my be applied only to the eggs of the sturgeon prepared by a special process. Fish roe prepared from the eggs of other varieties of fish and prepared by the special process for caviar must be labeled to show the name of the fish from which they are prepared, for example ‘whitefish caviar.’ All words in the name should be in type of substantially the same size and prominence. If the product contains an artificial color, it must be an approved color and its presence must be stated on the label conspicuously. No artificial color should be used which makes the product appear to be better or of greater value than it is. The label should bear a statement of ingredients listed by their common or usual names in descending order of predominance because no standard of identity has been established for any form of caviar.”[41]
In addition to labeling requirements, caviar is also regulated the FDA’s Hazard Analysis and Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point Plan (HACCP).[42] As caviar falls under the classification of a fish or fishery product, caviar producers must engage in “hazard analysis” – determining whether there are food safety hazards likely to result from their production of caviar – and must form a “HACCP plan” – basically a list of food safety hazards that are reasonably likely to occur, and a list of procedures and provisions to be taken in the event of such a hazard. Far more interesting than HACCP and labeling regulations, however, are (1) the effects of CITES regulation on caviar production, and (2) the effects of borax regulation and Iran-US relations on the caviar industry.
On one side of the fish house, row on row,
Were kegs and cases of sturgeon roe,
The public hadn’t acquired the expensive taste
That now is featured in caviar paste.
The sturgeon are gone and so is the roe
And the exciting days of long ago.
And the rough, kindly, friendly fisher folk
Who chewed tobacco and spit at my feet as a joke.
~ Violet Reid Reavie
As an ancient and historically popular fish, the sturgeon has a history of being over-fished, at times almost to the point of extinction, and in the case of some species, beyond that point (see, for example, the once popular and now elusive sterlet). The precarious position of the sturgeon was recognized in 1997 by the Standing Committee of CITES – the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora – at their annual meeting.[43]
Drafted in 1963 at a meeting of the World Conservation Union (IUCN), CITES is an international agreement between governments, aimed at ensuring that international trade in wild animals and plants does not threaten their survival.[44] CITES was agreed upon at a March 3, 1973 meeting of representatives of 80 countries, and became enforceable on July 1, 1975.[45] “CITES works by subjecting international trade in specimens of selected species to certain controls. These require that all import, export, re-export and introduction from the sea of species covered by the Convention has to be authorized through a licensing system.”[46] The agency responsible for enforcing CITES regulations in the United States is the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.[47]
In 1997, at the 10th meeting of the Standing Committee of CITES in Harare, Zimbabwe, the Committee decided to regulate the international trade in sturgeon, and included all 23 species of the Acipenseriformes (sturgeon and its cousin, the paddlefish) in Appendix II, the list of species “not necessarily threatened with extinction, but in which trade must be controlled in order to avoid utilization incompatible with their survival.”[48] (The sturgeon was not placed in Appendix I, a list of species threatened with extinction, the trade of which is permitted only in exceptional cases).[49] As of April 1998, CITES has set limits on the amount of sturgeon and sturgeon products that can be sold internationally, and all such products, including caviar, must have a permit when being traded commercially.[50] The international cooperation that the CITES Committee makes possible is particularly important when dealing with the sturgeon as (1) they are migratory fish that “cross international borders as part of their life cycle,” and (2) the trade in these animals and animal products crosses borders between many countries. [51] [52]
The Committee was particularly concerned with the future of the sturgeon given the early 1990’s break-up of the USSR.[53] Before its collapse, the USSR government held strict control on sturgeon harvest limits and caviar production.[54] Afterward, the existing management and control systems virtually collapsed, and “the new free states found that caviar sales was a rapid way to generate cash.” [55] [56] Without the strict, USSR enforcement in the region, poaching and over-exploitation of the sturgeon stocks grew out of control.[57]
In 2000, at their 11th meeting, the Committee recommended “the introduction of a universal system for caviar labeling to help identify legal caviar in trade” and curb poaching and illegal caviar trafficking.[58] And in June of 2001, at their 12th meeting in Paris, the Committee went so far as to threaten the Caspian Sea range states (Russia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and Turkmenistan) with a complete ban on all caviar and sturgeon product exports unless “they implemente[d] a series of time-sensitive measures designed to stem the alarming depletion of sturgeon stocks in the region.”[59] The fifth range state, Iran, was allowed to continue exporting without CITES limitations, as the country strictly controls the sturgeon catch in its waters.[60] (Iran’s caviar trade has been affected by other regulations, however, namely the US’s listing of borax as an illegal food additive, and sanctions imposed on Iran following the 1979 fall of the Shah. See Sections VII and VIII, below.)
By the end of the Paris 2001 meeting, the range countries had agreed to halt sturgeon fishing for the remainder of 2001, and to adopt conservationist measures in the following six months, including: “conduct[ing] a comprehensive survey of sturgeon stocks, jointly set[ting] catch and export quotas, and assess[ing] the illegal trade and enforcement needs, with assistance of international agencies such as the CITES Secretariat, Interpol, and World Customs Organization. By June 2002, the countries ...also committed to developing a regional fisheries management system, significantly enhanc[ing] efforts to combat illegal harvesting, regulat[ing] domestic trade and implement[ing] a caviar labeling system.[61]
Some conservationists saw the 2001 Paris agreement and temporary ban on fishing as “largely symbolic” given that 70 to 80 percent of the yearly catch was already in by June.[62] Many others argued that the ban on exports did not address all of the problems facing sturgeon, including a rapidly rising domestic trade, poaching, oil drilling, pollution, and illegal trade in sturgeon and caviar, noting that the range countries had already reduced their combined export quotas on Caspian species by 50 percent since 1998, and the sturgeon numbers continued to decline.[63] [64]
In their 13th and most recent meeting in Geneva, on March 15, 2002, the Standing Committee agreed to lift the temporary ban on caviar and sturgeon products exports imposed on the range countries in June 2001. The Committee’s Secretariat approved the range countries’ plan to regulate fishing, and set new quotas for caviar and sturgeon meat exports from the Caspian Sea, saying it was satisfied that the range countries were “moving to meet their obligations” by establishing the first-ever unified system for surveying and managing sturgeon stocks.[65] The Secretariat also recognized that despite the temporary ban and agreements by range countries, problems for the sturgeon still remain, in particular unregulated domestic consumption and growing illegal poaching in the Caspian Sea. At the March meeting, the Secretariat pledged that CITES would monitor these problems, and should it be necessary, was is prepared to “restrict fishing before harvesting begins in earnest next month.”[66]
For some environmental groups, including Caviar Emptor, an association of the Wildlife Conservation Society, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), and SeaWeb, the Committee’s decision to lift the export ban is a huge mistake, one that will toll the death knell for the beluga sturgeon. Caviar Emptor argues that scientific evidence, such as the low number of mature adults being caught, shows the beluga is almost extinct. Dr. Ellen Pikitch, Director of Marine Programs for the Wildlife Conservation Society and member of Caviar Emptor told The New York Times in April that the beluga sturgeon population had dropped more than 90 percent in the last 20 years, and “the decision to resume fishing will lead to the demise of the beluga sturgeon.”[67] However, the CITES Committee felt confident of the commitment of the range countries to the conservation of the sturgeon, and suggested that the continued ban of exports, or the transfer of the beluga from Appendix II (some trade allowed) to Appendix I (almost no trade allowed) would be counterproductive, encouraging illegal trade over legal, and depriving the governments involved of the capital needed to institute conservation and monitoring programs.[68]
Q: Who was the first official to warn the public of the health risks of eating caviar?
A: The Sturgeon General!
~ Anon.
In addition to HACCP and CITES regulation, the FDA’s food additives regulation also affects the caviar industry in the US. Borax, an alkaline compound used mainly as a cleaning agent and in the manufacture of glass and enamel, has long been added in tiny amounts by Iranian caviar producers to give their caviar a “softer and sweeter finish.”[69] However, this food chemical has also long been considered an illegal additive by the FDA.
The FDA’s involvement with borax goes back to 1903 when Harvey W. Wiley, Chief of the Bureau of Chemistry in the USDA (precursor to the FDA) and father of the Food and Drugs Act of 1906 established his famous volunteer “Poison Squad.” This squad consisted of “young men who agreed to eat only foods treated with measured amounts of chemical preservative, with the object of demonstrating whether these ingredients were injurious to health.”[70] Among the preservatives the squad tested was borax (also known as borates or boric acid). As a result of those tests and the 1904 Secretary of Agriculture’s first “Poison Squad” report on borax, the preservative was ruled unacceptable for use in food.[71] In her June 1990 FDA Consumer Magazine article “Is it Worth the Worry? Determining Risk,” Marian Segal recounts an exchange between Wiley and Congressman James D. Mann, as Wiley testified before the House Subcommittee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce in 1906 on the use of borax as a preservative:
“Mr. Mann: Does your report show that in your opinion the use of borax has a deleterious effect upon the organs of the body?
“Dr. Wiley: Of course, you understand, Mr. Mann, the tests that we have made are not the same as those made upon animals fed for pharmacological experiments because after a given time the animals are killed and their organs are examined, and the changes in the cells are studies by the microscope. We were precluded from doing that.
“Mr. Mann: Is that your conclusion?
“Dr. Wiley: My conclusion is that the cells must have been injured, but I had no demonstration of it, because I would not kill the young men and examine the kidneys.”[72]
Borax has remained on the list of illegal food additives since the time of Wiley’s conclusion that “cells must have been injured” by its ingestion, and as a result, for many years Iranian caviar was kept out of the country for its borax content. The FDA has developed new technology for detecting borax in food.[73] And until very recently, the FDA detaining any caviar coming into the country simply because it “contain[ed] borates, a nonpermitted food additive.”[74]
However, in 2000 the FDA made a seemingly unofficial decision to allow caviar with borax into the country, despite its reluctance to remove the additive from the list of nonpermitted food additives.[75] The reason newspaper articles give for the change in policy is the FDA’s decision that the “minute concentrations [of borax] used for caviar, and the fact that caviar is not something people eat daily in large quantities, make [Iranian caviar with borax] a minimal health risk.”[76] However, the lack of documentation on the decision in either the Federal Register, the Food, Drug, & Cosmetic Law Reporter, or any other legal reference point or database – indeed a lack of documentation so complete that not even the research librarians at the HLS library could find anything on the decision – and the reluctance of anyone at the FDA to comment on the decision despite numerous phone-calls and emails, suggests that something “fishy” may be going on, and perhaps the decision to allow Iranian caviar with borax into the country was motivated more by politics than by a determination of the safety of borax in small doses. To understand this theory, however, it is important to review briefly the history of US-Iran relations.
It’s all right, it’s Polish caviar.
~ Johnny Iselin in “The Manchurian Candidate”
Tensions between the US and Iran have run high since the February 11, 1979 fall of the Shah of Iran, a US ally, and the November 4, 1979 occupation of the US embassy in Tehran by radicals who held the diplomats hostage until just after President Reagan’s inauguration on January 20, 1981.[77] Shortly after the occupation began, President Carter declared a national emergency with respect to Iran on November 14, 1979; it has been renewed by every US president every year since then.[78] On April 7, 1980 the US officially broke off relations with Iran, and the two countries have had no official dialogue since then, with the exception of the mid-eighties temporary lifting of sanctions as part of the Algiers accord under which American hostages were released.[79] [80]
The tension only continued through the 1980s and into the 1990s. In 1987 President Reagan banned all Iranian imports and tightened restrictions on what could be exported to that country, in response to “increasingly bellicose behavior” by Iran, including attacks on American forces and American-flagged Kuwaiti ships in the Persian Gulf.[81] Though President George Bush later relaxed some of the sanctions on imports of Iranian oil in 1990, this relaxation was conditioned on the channeling of payments for Iranian oil into “an escrow account that finances American claims against Iran dating to the 1979 overthrow of the Shah;” US companies were still barred from sending money to Iran.[82]
At first, the Clinton administration took a similarly wary view of Iran, a seemingly appropriate approach given the country’s attempts to acquire weapons of mass destruction, support for terrorist groups, and subversion of the US-led Middle East Peace Process.[83] [84] The administration took a “dual containment” attitude toward both Iran and Iraq, instituting more sanctions on trade with Iran and prohibiting investment in its energy sector in two separate 1995 executive orders.
However, the 1997 election of the more moderate President Mohammad Khatemi, and the March 2000 reformist victory in Iran’s parliamentary elections led the administration to change its attitude from one of “containment” to one of “engagement,” opening the lines of communication with Iran in a March 17, 2000 speech by the then Secretary of State Madeline Albright. In her speech, Albright announced plans by the US to ease sanctions on Iran, and to allow the importation of some Iranian goods, including pistachios, carpets, and caviar.[85] Albright stated that the decision to end these sanctions was symbolic, aimed at small businesses in an effort to demonstrate to “millions of Iranian craftsmen, farmers, and fishermen who work in these industries, and the Iranian people as a whole, that the United States bears them no ill will.”[86]
It seems, therefore, to be no coincidence that just a few short months after the decision to ease sanctions with Iran and to show Iranian businesses that the US “bears them no ill will,” The New York Times announced a decision by the FDA to refrain from detaining caviar with borax (i.e. Iranian caviar) entering the US.[87] This political explanation for the reappearance of Iranian caviar, complete with borax, on American gourmet food store shelves, also seems to fit with the complete lack of documentation by the FDA on the scientific decision for this change in policy, or even on the change in policy itself.
It is worthwhile, however, to ask what changes in policy the FDA may decide to take now that relations with Iran have begun to swing in the opposite direction. Though the 2001 cooperation of the George W. Bush administration with Iran against the Taliban in Afghanistan seemed to bode well for relations between Iran and the US, Bush renewed the 1979 national emergency status initiated by Carter, and Iran has still refused to enter into official, bilateral talks with the US.[88] Allegations that Iran sold arms to the Palestinian Authority and has been “meddling in post-Taliban Afghanistan” have dimmed hopes for resumption of official dialogue.[89] Iran was named as a member of the “Axis of Evil” along with North Korea and Iraq in President Bush’s January 29, 2002 State of the Union address, and continues to oppose the US-led Middle East peace process, supporting the Hizballah in Lebanon and the Palestinian anti-peace groups Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.[90] Iran’s human rights violations, and modernization of their conventional forces (posing a potential threat to US interests in the Persian Gulf) threaten US-Iran relations, relations that are more than strained already.[91] If the FDA changed its policy toward an unapproved food additive to further a political goal in 2000, one must ask what other steps might they take if it becomes the case that what was once a political goal (i.e. easing tensions with Iran) is no longer so desirable.
Under cover of the clinking of water goblets and silverware and bone china, I paved my plate with chicken slices. Then I covered the chicken slices with caviar thickly as if I were spreading peanut butter on a piece of bread. Then I picked up the chicken slices in my fingers one by one, rolled them so the caviar wouldn't ooze off and ate them.
~Sylvia Plath
Caviar is a big business. Imported caviar can sell for anywhere from $100 to $1,000 per ounce in America, and the United States imports an average of 130,000 pounds of caviar per year, worth approximately $6.6 million.[92] [93] And as might be expected in a business as potentially profitable as the caviar business, there is a high occurrence of fraud. Just as in the 19th century, when American caviar was passed off as imported Russian caviar and sold at a higher price, so too in the 21st century do fraud and deceit find their way into the caviar industry. In fact, it is believed that only a small percentage of the caviar that comes out of the Caspian, or that enters this country, does so legally.[94]
“Because of its strong ties to former Cold War enemies, the caviar business often teeters on the fine line between diplomacy and espionage. Numerous spy stories have been told about clandestine midnight shipments of roe or secret meetings on third-party neutral territory.”[95] Unbelievable as they may seem, there are many documented cases of caviar smuggling during the last two decades that suggest that the spy stories of caviar gangsters are not so fanciful after all.
In the late 1980s, Isodoro Mario Garbarino, caviar dealer and former president of Aquamar Gourmet Imports, was implicated and indicted in connection with numerous caviar scams, including (1) smuggling over 100,000 pounds of caviar worth $10 million into the US without paying the 30% duty, (2) passing off third rate caviar as beluga to Pan Am Airlines (for service to their first class passengers), and (3) assisting Missouri paddlefish poachers in interstate sales of illegally obtained roe.[96] In 1988, Gerald Stein, president of the former Iron Gate Products of New York (whose clients included Macy’s) and author of Caviar! Caviar! Caviar!, was arrested for caviar fraud and importation of then embargoed Iranian roe.[97] Prior to his arrest, customs agents found and seized over $1 million worth of illegal goods at the headquarters of Iron Gate Products and other import companies with which Stein was affiliated.[98]
In 1993, Arnold Hansen-Sturm of Hansen Caviar Company was convicted of conspiring to purchase and sell 3,200 pounds of illegally obtained caviar.[99] After spending almost two years in jail, upon his release Hansen-Sturm returned to the caviar business, and was recently quoted as an expert on sturgeon conservation.[100] In 1999, two importers, Eugeniusz Koczuk, owner of the import company Gino International, and his associate Wieslaw Rozbicki, were convicted of smuggling caviar into the US in violation of CITES provisions.[101] After further investigation, the US Fish and Wildlife Service found the pair’s smuggling operation had brought thousand pounds of caviar into the US illegally, paying airline employees to bring suitcases full of caviar tins through Kennedy Airport into the US.[102] On Oct. 28, 1998 investigators “apprehended seven couriers whose 16 suitcases contained 1,000 pounds of caviar. Another 1,000 pounds were later seized at Koczuk’s Connecticut home.”[103] Business records showed that though Koczuk’s import company Gino International sold 21,000 pounds of caviar for millions of dollars between April and November of 1998, only 88 pounds of it were legally imported.[104]
In 2001, Slawomir Garmulewicz was convicted of attempting to smuggle 110 pounds of beluga caviar into the United States, and was sentenced to 13 months in jail, followed by two years of probation.[105] A US citizen, Garmulewicz was caught at the Miami airport with 100 undeclared 500-gram beluga caviar tins in his luggage.[106] And most recently, in 2002, Alfred Yazbak, president and owner of Connoisseur Brands Ltd. of New York, was convicted of (1) “conspiring to smuggle protected sturgeon caviar,” (2) “selling counterfeit caviar to retail food companies with false labels” and (3) “making false statements [in connection with caviar sales].”[107] In addition, he was also convicted of “purchasing black-market caviar smuggled out of the former Soviet Union in the luggage of couriers.”[108] He has been sentenced to two years of incarceration, and fines and duties of $185,000.[109] Through his company, Connoisseur Brands Ltd., Yazbak sold overpriced American paddlefish roe masquerading as Russian sevruga to numerous innocent New York merchants, who unknowingly passed the fraud on to their customers.[110]
In the prestigious and pricey world of the caviar import/export business, it is hard to find a single dealer or author or caviar expert who has not been linked with a scandal or scam. However, those enforcing the CITES regulations discussed above are fighting the good fight to stem the tide of poaching and illegal trading. “We are looking into something that was probably rife with black market dealings for decades,” Sal Amato, head of law enforcement at the Maryland and Delaware offices of the Fish and Wildlife service, told The New York Times in February 2002.[111] The sturgeon surely has a hard fight ahead.
There is more simplicity in the man who eats caviar on impulse
than in the man who eats Grape-Nuts on principle.
~ G.K. Chesterton
Caviar is more than the carefully processed eggs of a prehistoric fish, more than a flashpoint for international tensions and safety concerns, more than an opportunity to make a quick buck poaching and scamming and violating the law. Caviar has become a symbol throughout the world of success and luxury, and sometimes of snobbery and high society. The ritual surrounding the consumption of caviar only helps add to its image and flair: the ornate silver serving dishes with their inner glass bowls and outer ice compartments, the delicate mother-of-pearl spoons, the variety of accompaniments that are served along side, the awkward dance performed by guests offered the treat, knowing it is impolite to help one’s self to more than a teaspoonful or two, but drawn to the delicacy nonetheless. Little wonder why the sovereigns of China, Russia, and France claimed the much desired roe for themselves and why we are willing to pay such a high price for these perfect “magic pearls.”[112] Little wonder also why the law must now protect this treasured resource from extinction.
WORKS CONSULTED
I gave caviar to my grandpa,
Grandpa's age is
ninety-three,
Last time that I saw grandpa,
He's chased
grandma up a tree.
~ The Virgin Sturgeon (rugby song)
A Short Sturgeon History and Some Interesting Trivia, www.sterlingcaviar.com/history.asp
Agreement on Caspian Sea Caviar is a Step in the Right Direction, World Wildlife Fund Newsroom: www.worldwidllife.org/news/headline.cfm?newsid=283
Boeckmann, Caviar, (2000)
Burros, Eating Well: Unraveling a Caviar Mystery, NYTimes, Feb. 27, 2002.
Caviar Newsletter, www.866-caviar6.com/Caviar-Newsletter.html
Caviar smuggler in Florida gets 13 months jail, Reuters, Dec. 11, 2001. www.cites.org/eng/news/cuttings/2001/us_caviarl_12-11.shtml
Caviar Traders Meet Scientists Over Sturgeon Crisis, Environmental News Service: www.ens-news.com/ens/feb2001/2001L-02-16-10.html
Caviar, The Perfect Pearls of Nature, www.wines.com/lafayette/pearls.html
Caviar: Magic pearls, www.caviar.tic.cz/kperly-e.htm
Conference of the Parties to the CITES; Twelfth Regular Meeting, 67 Fed. Reg. 75,19207, at 75,19208, (2002)
Determination of borates in caviare (sic) by ion-exclusion chromatography, Food Additives and Contaminants. 1998. 15: 8, 898-905. 24 ref
Fabricant, The Dearest Eggs Since Faberge, Iranian Caviar Returns, NYTIMES, Oct 4, 2000
FDA Enforcement Report, 4/19/1995 www.fda.gov/bbs/topics/ENFORCE/ENF00377.html
Fishery Products, US Food and Drug Administration, www.fda.gov/opacom/morechoices/smallbusiness/blubook/fishprod/htm
Food Drug and Cosmetic Act, 21 C.F.R. §123.6 (2002)
Friedland, Caviar, (1986)
Gould, Fishybusiness: Russian Black Gold Hits Manhattan, The Village Voice, Oct. 14, 1997.
Hershey, US Is Relaxing Its Ban on Oil Imports from Iran, NYTIMES, Dec 23, 1990
How CITES works? www.cites.org/eng/disc/how.shtml
Interview with Saul Zabar, President of Zabars, and Annie Zabar, Head of Caviar Dept. at Zabars, in New York, NY. (Feb 8, 2002)
Janssen, Wallace F., FDA Historian; The Story of the Laws Behind the Labels: Part I: 1906 Food and Drugs Act, FDA Consumer Magazine, June 1981.
Katzman, Kenneth, Foreign Affairs, Defense, and Trade Division; Iran: Current Developments and U.S. Policy, CRS Issue Brief for Congress. Updated April 9, 2002.
Kishkovsky, World Briefing: Europe: Russia: Saving Sturgeon, And Caviar, NYTIMES Jan 5, 2002
Lazaroff, Caviar Smugglers on Ice in New York, Environment News Service, Nov. 5, 1999.
National Contacts www.cites.org/common/directy/e_directy.html
Olson, CITES incentives inspire vital reforms in wildlife management, NYTIMES, April 11, 2002 www.cites.org/eng/news/press_release.shtml
Roe to Ruin, www.caviaremptor.org/quickfacts.html
Sanger, US Ending a few of the sanctions Imposed on Iran, NYTIMES, March 18, 2000
Segal, Marian. Is it Worth the Worry? Determining Risk, FDA Consumer Magazine, June 1990.
Seidel, What Every Member of the Trade Community Should Know About: Caviar, Feb 1997. www.customs.ustreas.gov/imp-exp1/comply/caviar.htm
Stein, Caviar! Caviar! Caviar!, (1981)
Sternin, Caviar: The Resource Book, (1993)
Stradley, Linda’s Culinary Dictionary, www.geocites.com/NapaValley/4079/Glossary/C.htm
Sturgeons and CITES, www.cites.org/eng/programme/sturgeon.shtml
Tagliabue, U.N. Agency Won’t Ban Caspian Sea Caviar, NYTIMES, June 22, 2001
Telephone Interview with Saul Zabar, President of Zabars. (Feb 1, 2002)
Trowbridge, Caviar, homecooking.about.com/library/weekly/aa121800a.htm
U.S. Trade Quick-Reference Tables: December 2001 Imports, Caviar and Caviar Substitutes, www.ita.doc.gov/td/industry/otea/Trade-Detail/Latest-December/Imports/16/160430.html
Vogt, Donna U., Food Additive Regulations: A Chronology – NLE, CRS Report: 95-857, Updated Sep. 13, 1995.
What is Caviar? www.farsinet.com/caviar/faq.html
What is CITES? www.cites.org/eng/disc/what_is.shtml
[1] A Short Sturgeon History and Some Interesting Trivia, www.sterlingcaviar.com/history.asp
[2] Stradley, Linda’s Culinary Dictionary, www.geocites.com/NapaValley/4079/Glossary/C.htm
[3] What is Caviar? www.farsinet.com/caviar/faq.html
[4] Trowbridge, Caviar, homecooking.about.com/library/weekly/aa121800a.htm
[5] Seidel, What Every Member of the Trade Community Should Know About: Caviar, Feb 1997. www.customs.ustreas.gov/imp-exp1/comply/caviar.htm
[6] A Short Sturgeon History and Some Interesting Trivia, www.sterlingcaviar.com/history.asp
[7] www.caviar.tic.cz/kperly-e.htm
[8] www.geocites.com/NapaValley/4079/Glossary/C.htm
[9] www.wines.com/lafayette/pearls.html
[10] Caviar, The Perfect Pearls of Nature, www.wines.com/lafayette/pearls.html
[11] Caviar: Magic pearls, www.caviar.tic.cz/kperly-e.htm
[12] www.sterlingcaviar.com/history.asp
[13] homecooking.about.com/library/weekly/aa121800a.htm
[14] A Short Sturgeon History and Some Interesting Trivia, www.sterlingcaviar.com/history.asp
[15] www.geocites.com/NapaValley/4079/Glossary/C.htm
[16] Caviar, The Perfect Pearls of Nature, www.wines.com/lafayette/pearls.html
[17] www.wines.com/lafayette/pearls.html
[18] www.wines.com/lafayette/pearls.html
[19] www.wines.com/lafayette/pearls.html
[20] Caviar Newsletter, www.866-caviar6.com/Caviar-Newsletter.html
[21] Caviar Newsletter, www.866-caviar6.com/Caviar-Newsletter.html
[22] homecooking.about.com/library/weekly/aa121800a.htm
[23] www.customs.ustreas.gov/imp-exp1/comply/caviar.htm
[24] www.customs.ustreas.gov/imp-exp1/comply/caviar.htm
[25] www.caviar.tic.cz/kperly-e.htm
[26] www.caviar.tic.cz/kperly-e.htm
[27] www.customs.ustreas.gov/imp-exp1/comply/caviar.htm
[28] www.customs.ustreas.gov/imp-exp1/comply/caviar.htm
[29] www.caviar.tic.cz/kperly-e.htm
[30] www.customs.ustreas.gov/imp-exp1/comply/caviar.htm
[31] www.caviar.tic.cz/kperly-e.htm
[32] www.wines.com/lafayette/pearls.html
[33] www.wines.com/lafayette/pearls.html
[34] www.wines.com/lafayette/pearls.html
[35] www.wines.com/lafayette/pearls.html
[36] www.caviar.tic.cz/kperly-e.htm
[37] www.wines.com/lafayette/pearls.html
[38] www.wines.com/lafayette/pearls.html
[39] www.caviar.tic.cz/kperly-e.htm
[40] www.geocites.com/NapaValley/4079/Glossary/C.htm
[41] Fishery Products, US Food and Drug Administration, www.fda.gov/opacom/morechoices/smallbusiness/blubook/fishprod/htm
[42] Food Drug and Cosmetic Act, 21 C.F.R. §123.6 (2002)
[43] Sturgeons and CITES, www.cites.org/eng/programme/sturgeon.shtml
[44] What is CITES? www.cites.org/eng/disc/what_is.shtml
[45] What is CITES? www.cites.org/eng/disc/what_is.shtml
[46] How CITES works? www.cites.org/eng/disc/how.shtml
[47] National Contacts www.cites.org/common/directy/e_directy.html
[48] How CITES works? www.cites.org/eng/disc/how.shtml
[49] How CITES works? www.cites.org/eng/disc/how.shtml
[50] Caviar Newsletter, www.866-caviar6.com/Caviar-Newsletter.html
[51] Caviar Traders Meet Scientists Over Sturgeon Crisis, Environmental News Service: www.ens-news.com/ens/feb2001/2001L-02-16-10.html
[52] What is CITES? www.cites.org/eng/disc/what_is.shtml
[53] Sturgeons and CITES, www.cites.org/eng/programme/sturgeon.shtml
[54] A Short Sturgeon History and Some Interesting Trivia, www.sterlingcaviar.com/history.asp
[55] Sturgeons and CITES, www.cites.org/eng/programme/sturgeon.shtml
[56] A Short Sturgeon History and Some Interesting Trivia, www.sterlingcaviar.com/history.asp
[57] A Short Sturgeon History and Some Interesting Trivia, www.sterlingcaviar.com/history.asp
[58] Sturgeons and CITES, www.cites.org/eng/programme/sturgeon.shtml
[59] Sturgeons and CITES, www.cites.org/eng/programme/sturgeon.shtml
[60] Tagliabue, U.N. Agency Won’t Ban Caspian Sea Caviar, NYTIMES, June 22, 2001
[61] Agreement on Caspian Sea Caviar is a Step in the Right Direction, World Wildlife Fund Newsroom: www.worldwidllife.org/news/headline.cfm?newsid=283
[62] Tagliabue, U.N. Agency Won’t Ban Caspian Sea Caviar, NYTIMES Jun. 22, 2001.
[63] Kishkovsky, World Briefing: Europe: Russia: Saving Sturgeon, And Caviar, NYTIMES Jan 5, 2002
[64] Agreement on Caspian Sea Caviar is a Step in the Right Direction, World Wildlife Fund Newsroom, www.worldwidllife.org/news/headline.cfm?newsid=283
[65] Olson, CITES incentives inspire vital reforms in wildlife management, NYTIMES, April 11, 2002 www.cites.org/eng/news/press_release.shtml
[66] Olson, CITES incentives inspire vital reforms in wildlife management, NYTIMES, April 11, 2002
[67] Olson, CITES incentives inspire vital reforms in wildlife management, NYTIMES, April 11, 2002
[68] Conference of the Parties to the CITES; Twelfth Regular Meeting, 67 Fed. Reg. 75,19207, at 75,19208, (2002)
[69] Fabricant, The Dearest Eggs Since Faberge, Iranian Caviar Returns, NYTIMES, Oct 4, 2000
[70] Janssen, Wallace F., FDA Historian; The Story of the Laws Behind the Labels: Part I: 1906 Food and Drugs Act, FDA Consumer Magazine, June 1981.
[71] Vogt, Donna U., Food Additive Regulations: A Chronology – NLE, CRS Report: 95-857, Updated Sep. 13, 1995.
[72] Segal, Marian. Is it Worth the Worry? Determining Risk, FDA Consumer Magazine, June 1990.
[73] Determination of borates in caviare (sic) by ion-exclusion chromatography, Food Additives and Contaminants. 1998. 15: 8, 898-905. 24 ref
[74] FDA Enforcement Report, 4/19/1995 www.fda.gov/bbs/topics/ENFORCE/ENF00377.html
[75] Fabricant, The Dearest Eggs Since Faberge, Iranian Caviar Returns, NYTIMES, Oct 4, 2000
[76] Fabricant, The Dearest Eggs Since Faberge, Iranian Caviar Returns, NYTIMES, Oct 4, 2000
[77] Katzman, Kenneth, Foreign Affairs, Defense, and Trade Division; Iran: Current Developments and U.S. Policy, CRS Issue Brief for Congress. Updated April 9, 2002.
[78] Katzman, Kenneth, Foreign Affairs, Defense, and Trade Division; Iran: Current Developments and U.S. Policy, CRS Issue Brief for Congress. Updated April 9, 2002.
[79] Katzman, Kenneth, Foreign Affairs, Defense, and Trade Division; Iran: Current Developments and U.S. Policy, CRS Issue Brief for Congress. Updated April 9, 2002.
[80] Hershey, US Is Relaxing Its Ban on Oil Imports from Iran, NYTIMES, Dec 23, 1990
[81] Hershey, US Is Relaxing Its Ban on Oil Imports from Iran, NYTIMES, Dec 23, 1990
[82] Hershey, US Is Relaxing Its Ban on Oil Imports from Iran, NYTIMES, Dec 23, 1990
[83] Katzman, Kenneth, Foreign Affairs, Defense, and Trade Division; Iran: Current Developments and U.S. Policy, CRS Issue Brief for Congress. Updated April 9, 2002.
[84] Hershey, US Is Relaxing Its Ban on Oil Imports from Iran, NYTIMES, Dec 23, 1990
[85] Sanger, US Ending a few of the sanctions Imposed on Iran, NYTIMES, March 18, 2000
[86] Sanger, US Ending a few of the sanctions Imposed on Iran, NYTIMES, March 18, 2000
[87] Fabricant, The Dearest Eggs Since Faberge, Iranian Caviar Returns, NYTIMES, Oct 4, 2000
[88] Katzman, Kenneth, Foreign Affairs, Defense, and Trade Division; Iran: Current Developments and U.S. Policy, CRS Issue Brief for Congress. Updated April 9, 2002.
[89] Katzman, Kenneth, Foreign Affairs, Defense, and Trade Division; Iran: Current Developments and U.S. Policy, CRS Issue Brief for Congress. Updated April 9, 2002.
[90] Katzman, Kenneth, Foreign Affairs, Defense, and Trade Division; Iran: Current Developments and U.S. Policy, CRS Issue Brief for Congress. Updated April 9, 2002.
[91] Katzman, Kenneth, Foreign Affairs, Defense, and Trade Division; Iran: Current Developments and U.S. Policy, CRS Issue Brief for Congress. Updated April 9, 2002.
[92] Roe to Ruin, www.caviaremptor.org/quickfacts.html
[93] U.S. Trade Quick-Reference Tables: December 2001 Imports, Caviar and Caviar Substitutes, www.ita.doc.gov/td/industry/otea/Trade-Detail/Latest-December/Imports/16/160430.html
[94] Gould, Fishybusiness: Russian Black Gold Hits Manhattan, THE VILLAGE VOICE, Oct. 14, 1997.
[95] Caviar, The Perfect Pearls of Nature, www.wines.com/lafayette/pearls.html
[96] Gould, Fishybusiness: Russian Black Gold Hits Manhattan, THE VILLAGE VOICE, Oct. 14, 1997.
[97] Gould, Fishybusiness: Russian Black Gold Hits Manhattan, THE VILLAGE VOICE, Oct. 14, 1997.
[98] Gould, Fishybusiness: Russian Black Gold Hits Manhattan, THE VILLAGE VOICE, Oct. 14, 1997.
[99] Gould, Fishybusiness: Russian Black Gold Hits Manhattan, THE VILLAGE VOICE, Oct. 14, 1997.
[100] Gould, Fishybusiness: Russian Black Gold Hits Manhattan, THE VILLAGE VOICE, Oct. 14, 1997.
[101] Lazaroff, Caviar Smugglers on Ice in New York, ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE, Nov. 5, 1999.
[102] Lazaroff, Caviar Smugglers on Ice in New York, ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE, Nov. 5, 1999.
[103] Lazaroff, Caviar Smugglers on Ice in New York, ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE, Nov. 5, 1999.
[104] Lazaroff, Caviar Smugglers on Ice in New York, ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE, Nov. 5, 1999.
[105] Caviar smuggler in Florida gets 13 months jail, Reuters, Dec. 11, 2001. www.cites.org/eng/news/cuttings/2001/us_caviarl_12-11.shtml
[106] Caviar smuggler in Florida gets 13 months jail, REUTERS, Dec. 11, 2001. www.cites.org/eng/news/cuttings/2001/us_caviarl_12-11.shtml
[107] Burros, Eating Well: Unraveling a Caviar Mystery, NYTIMES, Feb. 27, 2002.
[108] Burros, Eating Well: Unraveling a Caviar Mystery, NYTIMES, Feb. 27, 2002.
[109] Burros, Eating Well: Unraveling a Caviar Mystery, NYTIMES, Feb. 27, 2002.
[110] Burros, Eating Well: Unraveling a Caviar Mystery, NYTIMES, Feb. 27, 2002
[111] Burros, Eating Well: Unraveling a Caviar Mystery, NYTIMES, Feb. 27, 2002
[112] Caviar: Magic pearls, www.caviar.tic.cz/kperly-e.htm