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Seafood from China Slips through FDA's Net

"Government failure at its worst"

By Lisa Wade McCormick
ConsumerAffairs.com

August 8, 2007

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Potentially contaminated seafood imported from China wound up in grocery stores across the United States without being tested for banned drugs or chemicals, according to an Associated Press investigation.

That investigation revealed at least one million pounds of suspect frozen shrimp, catfish, and eel imported from China were not screened despite an “import alert” issued by the Food and Drug Administration that required every shipment be held until it passed a laboratory test for banned drugs and chemicals.

One of every four shipments AP checked since last fall was not stopped and tested, the investigation found. That’s $2.5 million worth of seafood and equivalent to the amount 66,000 Americans would eat in one year, AP reported.

The FDA placed these “pond-raised” products on its import alert because of concerns they might contain carcinogens or antibiotics not approved for seafood.

No illnesses have been reported, the AP report said.

Its investigation, however, raises questions about the FDA’s ability to police food products imported into the United States.

And it comes on the heels of recent concerns about the safety of other products imported from China, including toothpaste and wheat gluten and rice protein used to make pet food.

“The FDA itself admits that this seafood needs inspection, but then doesn’t have the capability to inspect it,” Sen. Charles Schumer, (D-N.Y.) said of AP’s finding. He is a critic of the FDA’s food safety record. “This is an example of government failure at its worst.”

FDA officials acknowledged to AP that some shipments slip through its import alerts.

But overall, they said, the system worked.

“Any time you introduce a human element into something, I don’t think you can necessarily guarantee 100 percent,” Michael Chappell, the FDA official responsible for field inspections and labs, told AP.

The FDA normally inspects just one percent of the cargo it oversees, according to AP.

But products flagged under the import alerts are considered suspect and must be held until private tests--that cost importers thousands of dollars--show they are safe. The FDA sometimes double-checks those tests in its own labs, which means those products can be detained for months. That action often irks importers.

China is America’s biggest foreign source of seafood. The 1.06 billion pounds it supplied in 2006 represent 16 percent of all seafood Americans buy.

China has vowed to inspect its fish farms closely for drugs and chemical use—even though it’s called FDA’s mandated tests illegal under world trade rules.

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