US: Chinese seafood detained for safety

US: Chinese seafood detained for safety

	Published : Thu, 28 Jun 2007 20:28 By : Agencies Print this Story

WASHINGTON (AP) - Imports of five species of farmed Chinese seafood will be detained until they can be shown free of potentially dangerous antibiotics, federal health officials said Thursday.

The Food and Drug Administration said it would detain three types of fish -- catfish, basa and dace -- as well as shrimp and eel after repeated testing has turned up contamination with drugs unapproved in the United States for use in farmed seafood.

The announcement was only the latest in an expanding series of problems with imported Chinese products that seemingly permeate U.S. society, from its playrooms to its prisons.

Beyond the fish, federal regulators have warned consumers in recent weeks about lead paint in toy trains, defective tires and toothpaste made with diethylene glycol, a toxic ingredient more commonly found in antifreeze. All the products were imported from China.

China, meanwhile, insisted Thursday that the safety of its products was 'guaranteed,' making a rare direct comment on spreading international fears over tainted and adulterated exports.

FDA officials said there was no immediate health threat because of the low level of the drugs, but that they could cause harm if they were consumed over a long period.

'In order to get cancer in lab animals you have to feed fairly high levels of the drug over a long term,' said Dr. David Acheson, the FDA's assistant commissioner for food protection. 'We are talking not days, weeks, not even months but years. At these levels you might not reach that level, but we don't want to take a chance.'

He added, 'We don't want to be alarmist here. ... it's a low likelihood.'

The FDA said sampling of Chinese imported fish between October and May repeatedly found traces of the antibiotics nitrofuran and fluoroquinolone, as well as the antifungals malachite green and gentian violet. Of particular concern are the fluoroquinolones, a family of widely used human antibiotics that the FDA forbids in seafood in part to prevent bacteria from developing resistance to these important drugs.

The FDA will allow individual shipments of the five seafood species into the country if a company can show the products are free of residues of these drugs.

'This action will put a hold on the products of concern at the port of entry. This shifts the burden of proof back to the importer to prove to us that it is safe,' Acheson said.

China is the third largest exporter of seafood to the United States, according to the FDA. More than half of its global seafood exports are farmed. But only about 5 percent of farmed Chinese fish is inspected by the FDA, agency officials said.

The use of drugs in foreign fish farming operations has long been a concern of federal and state regulators. Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi recently banned imports of catfish from China after tests detected antibiotics not approved for use in humans.

'Clearly the addition of these drugs, it's a deliberate event,' Margaret Glavin, the FDA's associate commissioner for regulatory affairs, told reporters. 'If they stop adding them the problem is going to go away.'