The famous, but sometimes deadly delicacy know as puffer fish may appear on menus in Shanghai in two years.

Scientists at Shanghai Fisheries University are studying rules on how to prepare toxic puffer fish so that they are safe to eat.

The fish, now banned at restaurants, is popular among some diners for its delicate and delicious taste.

Puffer fish, also known as blowfish, contain tetrodotoxin, a compound that makes them foul tasting and often lethal to fish. To humans, tetrodotoxin is 1,200 times more poisonous than cyanide. There is enough tetrodotoxin in one puffer fish to kill 30 adults. There is no known antidote.

A total of 76 people in Shanghai have been poisoned when eating the fish. One person died after eating the fish in 2006, according to the Shanghai Food and Drug Administration.

(Shanghai Daily March 7, 2008)