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Subscribe to Health UpdatesFDA Detains Contaminated Seafood from China
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findingDulcinea Staff
The FDA has detained shipments of five species of seafood from China after finding that they contained two antibiotics and two antifungals illegal in the United States, joining the ranks of other dangerous Chinese products that include toothpaste, tires, and toy trains.
30 Second Summary
U.S. Food and Drug Administration inspectors have detained shipments of Chinese catfish, basa, dace, shrimp, and eel after discovering traces of the illegal antibiotics nitrofuran and fluoroquinolone and the illegal antifungals malachite green and gentian violet. Officials said there was no immediate health risk to the public, and stopped short of an outright ban on the products.
This announcement comes on the same day as reports that thousands of tubes of Chinese-made toothpaste containing the toxic chemical diethylene glycol were shipped to prisons and mental hospitals all over Georgia. FDA officials say that the toothpaste's presence indicates that it may have been more widely distributed than initially thought, and urged consumers to throw away all toothpaste marked "Made in China."
Although the FDA is responsible for ensuring the safety of imported products, its current food import system allows FDA inspectors to check less than one percent of all shipments arriving in the United States.
With American importing more food now than ever before, growing from an estimated 5.9 million imported items in 2003 to 9.1 million imported items this year, some critics say that an FDA overhaul is what's needed to allay growing import fears.
This announcement comes on the same day as reports that thousands of tubes of Chinese-made toothpaste containing the toxic chemical diethylene glycol were shipped to prisons and mental hospitals all over Georgia. FDA officials say that the toothpaste's presence indicates that it may have been more widely distributed than initially thought, and urged consumers to throw away all toothpaste marked "Made in China."
Although the FDA is responsible for ensuring the safety of imported products, its current food import system allows FDA inspectors to check less than one percent of all shipments arriving in the United States.
With American importing more food now than ever before, growing from an estimated 5.9 million imported items in 2003 to 9.1 million imported items this year, some critics say that an FDA overhaul is what's needed to allay growing import fears.
Headline
FDA officials said that the levels of the drugs in the seafood was low, and that consumers and stores don't need to throw away any of the contaminated food. Although the antibiotics are part of a family of widely -used human antibiotics, the FDA has banned using them in seafood in order to prevent bacteria from developing resistance to the drugs.
Source: ABC News
About 900,000 tubes of the Chinese-made toothpaste have surfaced in the United States, including at some hospitals and detention centers. Initially thought to only have been sold in discount stores, the Georgia Department of Administrative Services told The Associated Press that "cases of the tainted Chinese toothpaste were sent to two prisons, five state psychiatric hospitals, and four juvenile detention facilities."
Source: CNN
Background
According to China’s Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ), more than 56 percent of all dangerous food products exported to the United States in April were “illegal products.” As a result, Director General of China’s Bureau of Imports and Exports Food Safety Li Yuanping told foreign governments that it is their responsibility to ensure that their imports meet China’s legal standards.
Source: China Daily
In a crackdown on imports, China refused a shipment containing Evian bottled water, citing unsafe bacteria levels, and Australian seafood tainted with heavy metals. The refusal draws attention to China’s safety standards and, according to the Wall Street Journal, “suggests it is their spotty enforcement—rather than the standards themselves—that may be behind some the country’s problems with food safety.”
Source: The Wall Street Journal
China's former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner, Zheng Xiaoyu, was sentenced to death after pleading guilty to charges of corruption and bribery. Zheng served as the commissioner of the administration from its inception in 1998 until mid-2005. The Chinese government says that Zheng took about $850,000 in bribes in exchange for approving drug production licenses. Counterfeit drug production has become a major public health concern in China, as tens of thousands of people each year are made seriously ill because of counterfeit drugs.
Source: The BBC
Despite the FDA’s efforts to curb its distribution, China's toxic toothpaste has made it’s way into the United States, cropping up in Miami, the Port of Los Angeles, and Puerto Rico. The contaminated toothpaste was sold under the names Cooldent Fluoride, Cooldent Spearmint, Cooldent ICE, Dr. Cool, Superdent, Clean Rite, Oralmax Extreme, Oral Bright, Bright Max, and ShiR Fresh Mint.
Source: The New York Times (may require free registration)
In early May 2007, frozen catfish fillets imported from China were found to contain two antibiotics banned by the FDA. The discovery prompted Alabama to ban the imported fish, Mississippi to halt sale of the fillets, and Louisiana and Arkansas to institute mandatory testing of all catfish imported from China.
Source: National Public Radio
Reactions
The Chinese government outlined its first-ever food recall regulations. According to the Xinhua news agency, the government expects to finish drafting regulations by the end of the year that will be focused on targeting potentially dangerous and illegal products.
Source: Xinhua News Agency
The Chinese government has also vowed to investigate reports that the country exported toothpaste containing diethylene glycol.
Source: Xinhua News Agency
Opinions
Washington Post writer Rick Weiss states that the United States has imported “dried apples preserved with a cancer-causing chemical. Frozen catfish laden with banned antibiotics. Scallops and sardines coated with putrefying bacteria. Mushrooms laced with illegal pesticides.” Although FDA inspectors managed to seize these imports before they reached grocery-store shelves, on average FDA officials can check only about one percent of all food imports.
Source: The Washington Post
According to Stephen Hedges’s, China’s dangerous exports point to “a deep flaw” in the way the FDA handles imported foods. China exported $2.5 billion in food products to the United States last year despite serious issues with the country’s food industry regulation. Hedges writes that as U.S. imports increase each year, FDA inspectors simply cannot keep up. Reprinted from the Chicago Tribune.
Source: The Contra Costa Times
Paul Krugman criticizes the Bush administration for its laissez-faire approach to food and drug regulation, citing its refusal to pass any “significant new food safety regulations except those mandated by Congress.” According to Krugman, the administration is acting like it would rather see “E. coli on your spinach, salmonella in your peanut butter, and melamine in your pet’s food” than set a precedent for government regulation of market forces. Reprinted from the New York Times.
Source: CommonDreams.org
The Wall Street Journal writes that Zheng’s death sentence and China’s recently established food-recall system indicate that the government is aggressively trying to combat “a snowballing crisis of confidence in the safety of its food and drugs, both at home and abroad."
Source: The Wall Street Journal
New York Times Radio interviews reporter David Barboza about Zheng Xiaoyu’s unusually harsh sentence. Barboza blames China’s rampant corruption, its relatively lax regulatory bodies, and its culture of entrepreneurial competition for the recent string of poisonings tied to the country’s food and drug exports.
Source: New York Times podcast
According to China Daily writer Wang Shanshan, Zheng’s former watchdog organization “can't be blamed for all the ills plaguing the nation's food industry. A dozen or so government organizations are responsible for supervising and monitoring the industry, and they include the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Commerce and the Ministry of Agriculture. The fact is that the country lacks proper infrastructure to monitor the quality of food and ensure their safety.”
Source: The China Daily
Popular Chinese journalist Lian Yue is critical of the Chinese government’s new commitment to food and drug regulations, at least when it comes to domestic consumers: “Chinese food producers will just make two different products: the export products will be 100% safe, but they will cut corners on food for the domestic market and keep on poisoning at home—otherwise, where will their profits come from?”
Source: danwei.org
Reference Material
In April 2007 alone, the U.S. FDA refused 257 shipments of Chinese imports. According to the FDA’s own refusal reports, available on its Web site, inspectors rejected juices and fruits because they were “filthy,” prunes colored with dyes not approved for human consumption, shrimp coated with a carcinogenic antibacterial, and “poisonous” swordfish.
Source: The FDA's official Web site
The FDA’s Web site also has a food and recall alert page that offers consumers up-to-date information on dangerous and harmful foods from all over the country.
Source: The FDA's official Web site
Related Topics
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has urged a recall of up to 450,000 Chinese-made tires because they lack a standard safety feature. In Pennsylvania, two people have died in an accident allegedly caused when a faulty tire split. The Chinese-made tires are being sold under the names Westlake, Telluride, Compass, and YKS, and are used as spare tires on sport utility vehicles, vans, and trucks.
Source: The News Room
The Consumer Product Safety Commission has ordered the recall of 1.5 million Chinese-made, wooden Thomas the Tank Engine toys after discovering that the manufacturer had used lead paint on them. The recall has drawn attention to the other Chinese-made toys that are on current recall lists, including stuffed fabric blocks distributed by the popular brand Graco and Hasbro's Easy-Bake Ovens. China accounts for 65 percent of all the recalled goods in the United States this year.
Source: ABC News
Chinese inspectors in China's Guangxi region found that nearly 40 percent of children's snacks sampled contained excessive amounts of additives and preservatives, according to a report on China's government Web site. The report found that only 35 percent of desserts with gelatin met food standards, and that two kinds of candied fruit contained 63 times the permitted amount of artificial sweetener. China's Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang responded to the report: "I think it would be better if the media would stop playing up this issue."
Source: Topix.net
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