The United States is on course to set a six-year high on rejections of shrimp imports due to banned antibiotics, according to the Southern Shrimp Alliance, which tracks data from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
On Tuesday, 5 July, 2022, the industry trade group announced the FDA refused 63 seafood imports in June, and nine of those were shrimp products that contained antibiotics not approved in the U.S.
Through the first six months of the year, the agency has denied 45 shrimp imports because of antibiotic issues. That already exceeds the total for all of 2020. If rejections continue the current pace for a full calendar year, it would be the most shrimp rejected by the FDA because of banned antibiotics since it turned away 134 imports in 2016.
Last year, the FDA rejected 75 import entry lines.
The nine rejected imports in June came from two companies in India and one from Bangladesh.
Kader Exports Private Limited of India had five entry lines refused because of drug residues by the FDA’s Division of West Coast Imports on 17 June. Ten days earlier, an entry line presented by Coastal Corporation Ltd., was denied for similar contamination issues by the FDA Division of Northern Border Imports.
The West Coast division also stopped three entry lines from Bangladesh-based BD Seafood Limited after inspectors found shrimp contaminated with nitrofurans and drug residues.
Besides the drug residue rejections, the SSA also reported that FDA inspectors rejected shrimp from Vietnamese-based Tra Kha Seafood after finding “presence of a pesticide” in the shipment.
The FDA also rejected five other shrimp entry lines for other reasons, according to the trade group.
Sterling Foods of India had an entry line refused on 8 June by the FDA Division of Northeast Imports “for being filthy” and for salmonella being present. Three lines from Ecuador-based Industrial Pesquera Santa Pricscila S.A. were rejected by the Division of Southwest Imports on 7 June because of salmonella.
Another Indian company, Suryamitra Exim Pvt. Ltd., had an entry line rejected on 2 June by the FDA Division of Southeast Imports because of filth and for not identifying the product’s manufacturer, packer, or distributor.
Photo courtesy of the FDA
