Traces of malachite green, furacilinum and chloramphenicol have been picked up in retail samples of seafood by China’s National Food & Drug Administration (CFDA).
Furacilinum, also known as nitrofuran or vitrocin, is an antibacterial agent. Chloramphenicol is an antibiotic used in the treatment of bacterial infections.
A report on “Results of Examination of Seafood Products” published by the CFDA bureau in Shenyang, a major city in northern China, added that “unsuitable” traces were found in fish and prawns. China’s regulatory emphasis on food safety has grown so that the cabinet or State Council now directly oversees the CFDA, adding heft behind the investigation.
Some 468 shops and restaurants were inspected in the cities of Guangzhou, Jinan, Shanghai, and Shijiazhuang, with 91 percent of the mandarin, turbot and snakehead examined passed the test.
News of CFDA inspections prompted several major supermarket chains in Beijing and other Chinese cities to remove domestically produced seafood from their shelves and live fish tanks late last year – apparently worried about being closed due to failed tests.
