The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) refused shrimp entry lines from India, Hong Kong, and Vietnam in August 2022 due to their contamination by banned antibiotics.
Combined, the refusals accounted for 11.6 percent of the 43 seafood entry line refusals in the month, according to the Southern Shrimp Alliance, which tracks data from the FDA.
Among them, India-based Munnangi Sea Foods had two entry lines refused by FDA’s Division of Southeast Imports on 15 August because of the presence of nitrofurans in its shipments.
The same day, that FDA division refused one entry line of another Indian company, Falcon Marine Exports, after finding contamination from nitrofurans and poisonous chloramphenicol.
On 5 August, one entry line of Hong Kong-based Lee Fung Marine Products Trading Co. was refused by FDA’s Division of West Coast Imports as it was contaminated with veterinary drug residues and an unsafe additive.
Vietnam’s Trong Nhan Seafood Company Limited also had one entry line refused by the FDA’s Division of West Coast Imports, on 18 August, due to the presence of nitrofurans and veterinary drug residues.
The Southern Shrimp Alliance said in the first eight months of 2022, 53 shrimp entry lines have been refused by the FDA due to contamination from banned antibiotics. And the U.S. agency “remains on track to refuse the largest number of entry lines of shrimp for veterinary drug residues since 2016.”
Photo courtesy of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration
