June 29, 2007

 

US FDA restricts sale of five types of Chinese seafood
 

 

The US FDA has restricted the sale of  five types of farm-raised seafood from China due to contamination from unapproved animal drugs and additives.

 

The seafood named in the FDA's ''import alert'' are shrimp; catfish; eel; basa ( a type of catfish) and carp.

 

Some of the contaminants cited have been found to cause cancer in laboratory animals, while others may increase antibiotic resistance. Under the new FDA directive, the categories of seafood can be sold in the US only if importers provide independent testing that shows the seafood have not been contaminated.

 

The FDA said it decided to take the action after years of warnings and a visit to Chinese fish farms that yielded little improvement.

 

However, the agency also stressed that the seafood posed no immediate health threat unless through long-term consumption.

 

The announcement comes after a string of reports in recent months on Chinese imports failing to meet American health and safety standards, including melamine tainted corn gluten that sparked a massive pet food recall and toothpaste which were said to have caused health problems.

 

China, the world's biggest producer of farm-raised fish, accounts for 22 percent of US seafood imports.

 

As the list continues to grow of suspect Chinese imports, lawmakers in the US are demanding that China be held accountable for its exports.

 

Senator Richard J. Durbin, Democrat of Illinois and Representative Rosa L. DeLauro, Democrat of Connecticut, called on federal officials to establish a food safety agreement with China.

 

Chinese farmers used antibiotics to prevent disease among their fishes to prevent diseases in the densely stocked farms. Although the US allows some antibiotics in seafood, those found on Chinese seafood such as  nitrofuran, malachite green and fluoroquinolones are banned.

 

While nitrofuran and malachite green are banned in both countries, fluoroquinolones are allowed in Chinese aquaculture.

 

FDA  officials who inspected Chinese aquaculture operations found ''the residue control program ineffective and found that 15 percent of the samples it collected were contaminated.

 

China's seafood shipments to the United States reached US$1.9 billion in 2006, triple the value from 2001. The biggest American imports from China are shrimp, tilapia, scallops, cod and Pollock.

 

In May, the FDA turned away 165 shipments from China, 49 of them comprising of seafood. Among the species turned away were monkfish, catfish and tilapia fillets. Reasons included filth, presence of animal drugs and salmonella.

 

Of the shipments rejected for animal drug residues in 2006, 63 percent were from China. Vietnam the next country with the highest number of rejections, only accounted for 11 percent of the overall rejected shipments.

 

Due to the higher rates of chemical contamination in Chinese seafood, FDA officals are tightening scrutiny on food shipments from China, the agency said.