USA.- The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has now made public information regarding import refusals for February 2018. Last month, the FDA reported that 3 out of the 156 (1.9%) total seafood entry line refusals were of shrimp for reasons related to banned antibiotics.
At the same time, the FDA revised its reporting of refusals for January to now omit reference to four entry lines of shrimp imported from Sea Fresh (Bangladesh) that were reported to have been refused by the Division of West Coast Imports on January 22, 2018 for nitrofurans. With the adjustments made by the FDA to its January reporting, there have been a total of four entry line refusals of shrimp for reasons related to banned antibiotics thus far this year.
The three entry line refusals in February all from two different FDA divisions and were related to shipments from two Chinese companies:
– Zhangzhoushi TaiWang Food Co. (China), a company that has not been exempted from Import Alert 16-131, had two entry line refused for shrimp contaminated with veterinary drug residues and unsafe additives by the Division of West Coast Imports on February 27, 2018; and
– Dalian Jinhui Marine Product Co., Ltd. (China), a company that has also not been exempted from Import Alert 16-131, had one entry line refused for shrimp contaminated with veterinary drug residues and unsafe additives by the Division of Northeast Imports on February 26, 2018.
Also in February, the FDA reported refusing another eleven (11) shrimp entry lines because of salmonella, with all but one of these shipments originating in India. In January, the FDA reported refusing fourteen (14) shrimp entry lines because of salmonella, of which eleven (11) were attributed to Jagadeesh Marine Exports and were refused by the Division of Northeast Imports. Last month, the FDA reported refusing another nine (9) entry lines of shrimp from Jagadeesh Marine Exports, this time all refused by the Division of Southeast Imports. The other entry line of Indian shrimp refused last month was from Hyson Logistics and Marine Exports, a company that was added to Import Alert 16-81 (“Detention Without Physical Examination of Seafood Products Due to the Presence of Salmonella”) on February 20, 2018. The manufacturer of the only non-Indian shrimp entry line refused for salmonella was Rosemco Foods Limited of Bangladesh.
Source: SSA
