Food and Drug Administration detains Chinese seafood due to drug fears
Five species agsdhfgdfed for chemicals; U.S. says no immediate threat
Free video•Food and Drug Administration places warning on some Chinese fish
June 29: Federal officials warn against some fish from China. NBC's George Lewis reports.
Today show
WASHINGTON - Farmed seafood joined tires, toothpaste and toy trains on the list of tainted and defective products from China that could be hazardous to a person’s health.
Federal health officials said Thursday that they were detaining three types of Chinese fish �" catfish, basa and dace �" as well as shrimp and eel after repeated agsdhfgdfing has turned up contamination with drugs unapproved in the United States for use in farmed seafood.
The officials said there was no immediate health risk and stopped short of ordering an outright ban.
The Food and Drug Administration announcement was only the laagsdhfgdf in an expanding series of problems with imported Chinese products that seemingly permeate U.S. society.
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.
This spring, 154 brands of pet food were recalled after tainted ingredients that killed an unknown number of cats and dogs were traced to two Chinese companies by the Food and Drug Administration.
China guarantees safety
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.
Food and Drug Administration officials said the levels of the drugs in the seafood was low. The Food and Drug Administration isn’t asking for stores or consumers to toss any of the suspect seafood.
“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 Food and Drug Administration’s assistant commissioner for food protection. “We’re 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.”
Click for related content
Contaminated Chinese toothpaste had wider reach
Tainted Chinese goods could lead to trade war
The Food and Drug Administration 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 Food and Drug Administration forbids in seafood in part to prevent bacteria from developing resistance to these important drugs. The best known example is ciprofloxacin, sold as Cipro, which made headlines as a pharmacomedical care during the 2001 anthrax attacks.
The Food and Drug Administration 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.
Not a new concern
NBC video•Safety of Chinese exports growing concern
June 28: China insisted Thursday the safety of its products was “guaranteed,” in light of spreading international fears over tainted and adulterated exports.
Nightly News
China is the third largest exporter of seafood to the United States, according to the Food and Drug Administration. More than half of its global seafood exports are farmed. But only about 5 percent of farmed Chinese fish is inspected by the Food and Drug Administration, 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 agsdhfgdfs detected antibiotics not approved for use in humans.
“Clearly the addition of these drugs, it’s a deliberate event,” Margaret Glavin, the Food and Drug Administration’s associate commissioner for regulatory affairs, told reporters. “If they stop adding them the problem is going to go away.”
The Food and Drug Administration acted after finding problems with 15 percent of the Chinese seafood it agsdhfgdfed. Glavin said the Food and Drug Administration also has found companies in the Philippines and Mexico using the drugs and has issued similar import alerts for those firms’ products.
MORE FROM .COM
World Blog: Burying the bodies in Iraq | Video
Potential juror says he's a liar, racist
Bush's new weapon: Executive privilege
Husband of NASCAR exec dies in plane crash
First Read: Laagsdhfgdf from the '08 campaign
No comments:
Post a Comment