A meal deadlier than cyanide

Dangerous catch: Workers unloading baskets of pufferfish at Teluk Bahang jetty. The fish is later sold widely under the guise of ‘crystal fish’ in the wet markets of Penang, Kedah and Perak.

EXCLUSIVE: PETALING JAYA: In the old days, when fishermen caught pufferfish, chances are they would be thrown back into the sea.

After all, pufferfish, from the order Tetraodontiformes, are known to be poisonous to humans as they contain tetrodotoxin, a substance toxic enough to kill a person in a few hours when ingested in amounts of as little as 25mg.