December 28, 2016

Contaminated Chinese shrimp enter US via Malaysia

Chinese shrimp contaminated by antibiotics was allegedly being imported to the US via Malaysia, falsely labelled as Malaysian product, an investigative report from Bloomberg Businessweek said.

The report documented the abuse of antibiotics in raising both terrestrial and aquatic livestock in China, as well as the public health threat posed by the further spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

It also said that in response to efforts to counteract transshipment of Chinese shrimp through Malaysia, new transshipment channels might have been opened to facilitate the importation of cheap Chinese shrimp into the US market.

"As long as there are distributors, retailers and restaurants that, provided that the price is low, do not know and do not care where their shrimp is coming from, we expect to see shrimp-trade fraud", Southern Shrimp Alliance Executive Director John Williams was quoted as saying by Bloomberg Businessweek.

The in-depth report, entitled "How Antibiotic-Tainted Seafood from China Ends Up on Your Table" can be read here。