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Over one million pounds of frozen shrimp, catfish, and eel imported from China passed through U.S. ports since the fall of 2006 without the necessary inspection for banned chemicals and drugs. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had placed the Chinese food companies that supplied these products on an "import alert" list, meaning that the FDA was supposed to stop every shipment of the products until they had passed laboratory testing. However, an Associated Press (AP) investigation found that many such shipments were not stopped or tested.

Entry at Ports in the Southeast

A total of 28 shipments entered the U.S. market without the mandated testing, entering the country through ports in the Southeast including Miami, Tampa, and Savannah, Georgia. No illnesses have been reported to date. However, serious problems with products imported from China into the U.S. have surfaced in the past year, involving items such as toys, tires, toothpaste, and food, and both consumers and members of Congress have called for better monitoring of Chinese imports.

FDA Can't Meet Its Obligations

The FDA normally inspects only 1 percent of the imports it is charged with monitoring. In the case of import alerts such as that issued for pond-raised seafood from China, 100 percent of the import shipments are supposed to be inspected and tested. The latest news about the seafood shipments suggests yet again that the FDA is unable to meet its duties to protect American consumers.

The FDA has approximately 450 staff to screen about 20 million shipments of imported food products, medical devices, and other items each year. FDA employees recently testified before Congress that they don't feel they have the resources to do this screening adequately.

One Billion Pounds of Seafood from China Each Year

Seafood from China accounts for 16 percent of all of the seafood that is eaten in the United States, making it America's largest foreign source of seafood. In 2006, the U.S. imported more than one billion pounds of seafood from China. Last summer, the FDA found that about 15 percent of pond-raised shrimp, catfish and eel contain harmful or unapproved substances, and the agency starting putting suspect Chinese suppliers on a watch list — later upgrading the import standard to an import alert that required testing for all shipments from these companies.

Government Failure

As Senator Charles Schumer, D-N.Y. pointed out after hearing of the AP's investigation, "The FDA itself admits that this seafood needs inspection, but then doesn't have the capability to inspect it…This is an example of government failure at its worst."

(Source: MSNBC online)

Have you been sickened by imported seafood? Contact an experienced personal injury attorney today to discuss your legal rights.