After a major recall of more than 600,000 pounds of catfish earlier this week, a second United States importer is recalling nearly 70,000 pounds of the fish as well.
Wilmington, California-based J Deluca Fish Company Inc., doing business as Nautilus Seafood, is recalling approximately 69,590 pounds of Siluriformes fish – specifically yellow walking fish – from Vietnam. The products were produced at a Vietnamese facility that was not eligible to export Siluriformes fish to the United States, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service said in a press release.
In addition, the yellow walking fish shipment was not presented for import re-inspection into the U.S., according to FSIS.
Earlier this week, City of Industry, California-based Richwell Group, Inc., doing business as Maxfield Seafood, also recalled Siluriformes fish products because “they were produced at a Vietnamese establishment that was not eligible to export siluriformes fish to the U.S.,” FSIS said in a press release.
The yellow walking fish was distributed primarily to Vietnamese markets across the United States. Richwell imported the fish in February, and it was cleared by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration without incident, Jae Hwang, seafood operations manager for Maxfield, told SeafoodSource.
“However, siluriformes items are part of the catfish family, now subject to USDA inspection in recent years (like swai fish). In addition, our customs broker was not aware of the recent changes and failed to inform us of the necessity of inspection by USDA - FSIS under the new law,” Hwang said.
J. Deluca Fish’s yellow walking fish packages, labeled “Headless-Cleaned Yellow Walking Fish” and “Whole Yellow Walking Fish,” were imported on various dates from August 2018 to January 2019. The fish was shipped to distributors and retailers nationwide.
The problem was discovered on 22 May, 2019, during routine FSIS surveillance activities of imported products, FSIS said.
Individuals with questions about the recall can contact Wayne Berman, manager of J Deluca Fish, at (310) 901-4596.
