FDA Halts Imports of Farmed Fish From China

Products will be detained until proven free of contaminants, U.S. officials say.

By Steven Reinberg
HealthDay Reporter
Thursday, June 28, 2007; 12:00 AM

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THURSDAY, June 28 (HealthDay News) -- Troubles with tainted products from China continued Thursday, as U.S. health officials halted the import of farmed seafood from that country.

"The FDA is not allowing the import of these Chinese farmed seafood products until the importers can prove that the seafood is free from harmful contaminants," Dr. David Acheson, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's assistant commissioner for food protection, said during an afternoon teleconference.

He identified the banned fish as catfish, basa (similar to catfish), shrimp, dace (similar to carp) and eel, which he said may contain chemicals that are potentially carcinogenic.

"The FDA will start to detain these products at the border until the shipments are proven to be free of residues from drugs that are not approved in the United States for use in farm-raised fish," Acheson said.

However, he added, "there is no imminent threat to the public health, because of the low levels of contaminants. But the banned substances could cause serious health problems if consumed over a long period of time -- years."

"FDA is taking these actions because there have been continued violations with no signs of abatement," he said. "We have seen the involvement of a number of exporters, so we have seen the need to broaden this to a countrywide alert."

The action follows reports Wednesday that 900,000 tubes of toothpaste imported from China contaminated with chemical used in antifreeze were found in institutions for the mentally ill, hospitals, prisons and juvenile detention centers in Georgia and North Carolina, according to The New York Times.

Also this week, regulators in China closed 180 food plants after uncovering more than 23,000 food safety violations. Despite the crackdown, China denies that its food exports are dangerous.

All of that was preceded by the largest pet food recall in U.S. history because of tainted additives from Chinese companies.

In the current case, the FDA doesn't know how much of the U.S. supply these fish from China represent, Acheson noted.