Imported seafood must be electronically traceable across Beijing marketplaces under a new requirement being introduced by the city government beginning on 1 November.
The Beijing Cold Chain Food Traceability Platform is being administered by both the municipal commerce bureau and the local branch of the State Administration for Market Regulation Supervision (SAMR), with food companies and distributors required to put stickers and QR codes on sanitized import consignments. In addition, traceability data on imports must be uploaded to a searchable electronic database maintained by SAMR, according to a joint statement from the two agencies. The system is commonly being referred to as "Beijing Cold Chain.”
Chinese health officials continue to be on high alert for traces of COVID-19 on packaging of imported seafood. On 31 October, China suspended all imports from the Ecuadorian firm FIREXPA S.A. after it found traces of COVID-19 on a package of frozen pomfret. Chinese Customs has said it will suspend imports for a week if frozen food products tested positive for coronavirus, and for a month if a supplier's products tested positive for a third time or more, according to The Guardian.
Separately, cadmium in crab imports continues to be a major target for a regional branch of SAMR in one of the country’s key seafood provinces. The Fujian provincial bureau of SAMR has published a list of 10 businesses – many of them hotels – where its staff tested crabs (domestically produced and imported) with “excessive cadmium content, [which] may cause kidney and bone damage.” Crabs in one venue, selling to diners at CNY 120 (USD 18.00, EUR 15.60) per kilogram, appeared to be live brown specimens.
And excessive traces of the antibiotic chloramphenicol have been detected in shellfish during an inspection of the fish tanks at the Red Star Guohui restaurant in Fuzhou. The chemical “causes liver damage,” according to the SAMR statement, and overuse is a “common problem” in the country’s agricultural sector, it added.
Elsewhere, premium-priced Mandarin fish tested positive for excessive traces of malachite green at the Donghua Hotel in Zherong County – proof that the antibacterial agent continues to be a problem in China, even in the production of higher-priced fish.
The Fujian Provincial Market Supervision Administration has advertised a consumer complaint hotline for consumers concerned about potential contamination of seafood they have purchased.
Photo courtesy of Mark Godfrey/SeafoodSource
