Salmonella continues to be a problem with some imported shrimp, as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration refused 11 shrimp shipments in March due to the harmful bacteria.
Of the agency’s 11 refusals due to salmonella, ten of the rejected entry lines of shrimp came from Falcon Marine Exports Pvt. Ltd. in Orissa, India, while the remaining refused shipment came from Vasai Frozen Food Co. in Poman, Maharashtra, India. The FDA also refused 14 shrimp entry lines in January because of salmonella, with instances continuing to accumulate.
“Through the first quarter of this year, the FDA has already refused 36 entry lines of shrimp for salmonella – virtually all originating from India,” said the Southern Shrimp Alliance in a press release.
Salmonella isn’t the only culprit behind some of the latest shrimp refusals from the FDA, SSA confirmed – five out of the 135 total seafood entry lines that were refused were shrimp that contained banned antibiotics.
“With the adjustments made by the FDA to its January reporting, this brings the total entry line refusals of shrimp for reasons related to banned antibiotics to nine through the first quarter of this year,” SSA said.
The five FDA refusals over banned antibiotics were from: Dalian Jinhui Marine Product Co., Ltd. in China; Zhanjiang Longwei Aquatic Prod. In Zhanjiang City, Guangdong province, China; and Savvy Seafood Inc. in Zhanjiang City, Guangdong, China.
Photo courtesy of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention