A Hole in the Food Safety Net?

New Rule on Chinese Seafood Doesn't Go Far Enough, Advocates Say

Consumer advocates are raising concerns about whether federal restrictions meant to stop the import of tainted Chinese seafood are strong enough.

The Food and Drug Administration issued an import alert on June 28 requiring that five types of farm-raised seafood from China be tested for banned antibiotics before being allowed into the U.S. market. The restrictions require that the testing be conducted by a third party and that importers provide documentation that their seafood is safe. Certification, however, can come from a lab in any country, including China.

"We had a problem with the fact that FDA is going to allow China to be one of the certifiers, since they have done such a poor job of certifying" the safety of seafood in the past, said Tony Corbo, lobbyist for Food & Water Watch. "We're not sure they can handle this."

The alert was issued after a seven-month FDA study completed in May found restricted antibiotics in Chinese catfish, basa, shrimp, dace and eel. The study found that 25 percent of the farm-raised seafood tested contained contaminated antimicrobial agents. China is the world's largest producer of fish and the third-largest exporter of fish to the United States.

At about the same time, safety problems were being found in a variety of products from China, including tainted pet food ingredients and toothpaste manufactured with toxic chemicals.

Caroline Smith DeWaal, director of food safety at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, said the import alert was far-reaching in scope and in the number of hazards the FDA is tracking. "But there is a question of whether laboratories in China are the best place to provide the certification, given the history of problems . . . that have been documented from products coming from China," she said. "FDA should be looking for additional assurances that the lab results are trustworthy."

"If they are just accepting the results and not making sure the lab is using the appropriate methods, then that is a problem," said Chris Waldrop, director of the Food Policy Institute at the Consumer Federation of America. "I don't know if FDA is accepting this on faith or if they are actually looking at the lab that is providing the information."

David Acheson, the FDA's assistant commissioner for food protection, said the agency could verify the validity of some test results. "We may choose to go check up on it," he said.

When the alert is lifted, the FDA will resume spot-testing all Chinese food imports, Acheson said. But, he added, "for this system to work in the long term, there has to be trust built up" between the U.S. and Chinese governments.

The restrictions will weed out smaller, less responsible companies, while bigger companies will probably work to get their products tested by reputable labs as soon as possible, said John Fiorillo, an analyst with IntraFish, which follows the seafood industry. "This will be an important step toward professionalizing the Chinese fish-farming industry. I don't think anyone will be dumb enough to say, 'Eh, we don't have a problem; let's keep doing what we're doing,' " he said.

But some industry observers also note that Chinese importers could still send goods to another country to avoid the restrictions. "We are working with Customs and Border Protection to make sure there will be sufficient measures to avoid circumventing the rules," said Deborah Long, spokeswoman for the Southern Shrimp Alliance.

Analysts say that the FDA alert is unlikely to have an immediate effect on seafood prices and that large grocery stores and chains will shift to suppliers from other countries.

H&N Foods International, an importer in Los Angeles, began replacing its products from China, which made up about 5 percent of its business, at least two months ago, said Christine Ngo, the company's executive vice president. The "antibiotic issue had been stirring for the last year and a half," she said.

Supervalu, which owns more than a dozen grocery chains, including Albertsons and Shaw's, said it imports less than 4 percent of its seafood from China. Wal-Mart, which imports catfish from China, relies on its manufacturers for quality assurance testing. "We basically trust our manufacturers to adhere to all FDA standards," said Deisha Galberth, a company spokeswoman.

Stop & Shop, a New England supermarket chain that sells shrimp and basa, a type of catfish, from China, said it would shift to other suppliers. Whole Foods, which imports 2 percent of its seafood from China, said it sells a small amount of frozen shrimp from China. "We're not concerned about the less than 2 percent. It's business as usual for us," said Ashley Hawkins, a Whole Foods spokeswoman.