The United States Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) is issuing a public health alert on catfish imported from Brazil, which is ineligible to import catfish to the U.S.
EB Express Provisions in Newark, New Jersey, imported 165 pounds of the whole frozen catfish, which were initially distributed to Mineirao Markets in Massachusetts.
Instead of recalling the products, FSIS issued the health alert because “it is believed that the affected products are no longer available to be purchased by consumers,” the agency said in a press release.
The problem was discovered when FSIS followed up on a referral from the USDA’s Smuggling Interdiction and Trade Compliance Program.
The catfish were produced on 23 April, 2021, and the 13-pound to 14-pound cases are labeled, "GUTTED FROZEN FISH SCIENTIFIC NAME: Hypostomus.” The whole fish were removed from the cases and sold individually by weight in plastic bags at Mineirao Markets.
FSIS said that consumers who have purchased these products should not eat them.
“These products should be thrown away or returned to the place of purchase,” the agency said.
Photo courtesy of the USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service
