Imported Fish Not Tested For Harmful Drug Residues: GAO
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Only about one-tenth of one percent of all imported seafood is tested for drug residues, reports the Government Accountability Office. Such antibiotics are given to farmed fish prone to bacterial infections and can cause cancer.
An indication of poor allocation of resources, only 1.5 percent of Chinese seafood processing facilities have been inspected by the FDA, despite numerous reports of banned medicines showing up in seafood from China, Vietnam and other Asian countries. In 2007, Alabama regulators found antibiotics in almost half of the Chinese catfish they tested. Eating such seafood can be harmful because it increases resistance to antibiotics used to fight infections.
The Food and Drug Administration and the Department of Commerce’s National Marine Fisheries agreed in 2009 to enhance seafood oversight but that program is limited, especially as compared to the one used by the European Union. As a result, FDA inspectors generally do not visit fish farms to evaluate drug use or laboratories to assess the quality control of their testing.
Per the report:
In contrast, the EU reviews foreign government structures, food safety legislation, the foreign country's fish farm inspection program, and visits farms to ensure that imported seafood products come from countries with seafood safety systems equivalent to that of the EU. In addition, the scope of FDA's sampling program, which supplements its oversight program, is limited. Specifically, the sampling program does not generally test for drugs that some countries and the EU have approved for use in aquaculture. Consequently, seafood containing residues of drugs not approved for use in the United States may be entering U.S. commerce.
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First Posted: 05/16/11 05:07 PM ET Updated: 07/16/11 06:12 AM ET