The Chinese government has announced a stricter regime for antibiotics residues intended to bring Chinese standards into line with those of the European Union and the United States.
Three government departments have jointly announced a new, stricter testing regime for residues will come into force in April 2020.
“China’s drug residues limits is entering a new phase. It will now be twice as strict,” a joint statement issued by China’s Department of Agriculture, Department of Health, and the State Administration for Market Regulation said.
The tightening of regulations will bring China’s antibiotics residue testing on a par with standards in the E.U. and U.S., according to the statement. The departments said they will add 643 items to the list of individual residues tested, representing a 41.5 percent increase, and wil institute a 39.8 percent increase in the drugs covered by the testing.
A State Council document published earlier this year, “Opinions on Accelerated Green Development of Aquaculture Industry,” singles out over-contamination of antibiotic residues as a major challenge to the seafood sector.
While China’s government insists overuse of antibiotics in aquaculture remains a problem, the results of surveys listing regional compliance to seafood contamination laws show nonconformity totals falling to new lows, even before China’s recent crackdown. For example, the coastal city of Tianjin declared that compliance levels had gone from 96.4 percent in 2010 to 99.4 percent in 2018 – this during a recent visit to the city by the Fishing Law Enforcement Task Force dispatched by the National People’s Congress.
While the validity of this data seems questionable, a stricter antibiotics residue regime will place further pressure on China's fragmented aquaculture sector, which has been pinched on numerous fronts in recent years.
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