AP: Seafood From China Wasn't Screened

A worker moves frozen seafood inside the cold storage warehouse at the Pacific American Fish Company, Inc. in Vernon, Calif. Wednesday, Aug. 1, 2007. China is America's biggest foreign source of seafood, the 1.06 billion pounds it supplied in 2006 accounting for 16 percent of all seafood Americans buy. (Damian Dovarganes - AP)

The importer with the most cases was Florida-based Tampa Bay Fisheries.

Chief executive Robbie Paterson said 23 shipments of breaded or dusted frozen shrimp delivered between October and May were not inspected. In rare cases, the FDA removes from its watch list companies that have passed five straight tests. Paterson said he assumed that was why Tampa Bay's shipments went through.

Not so: Tampa Bay's shrimp supplier _ the Fuqing City Dongyi Trading Co. _ was on the watch list.

Three other companies said a total of five shipments of catfish, eel or shrimp were not stopped and tested.

Like many others in the importing business interviewed for this story, Paterson said he believed that import alerts were completely effective and that Chinese seafood poses no health risk.

FDA officials "are diligently doing the inspections as they see fit," Paterson said.

The expanded testing mandate has rattled China. U.S. importers said they are being told that the government is holding back shipments until tests show they will pass U.S. muster. The disruption has yet to result in any substantial price increases in the United States.

"I don't really know why they conducted the special test on our products," said a woman who identified herself as Miss Lin, a spokeswoman for Shantou Red Garden Foodstuff, which the FDA placed on its watch list in April after finding its dusted shrimp contained nitrofurans, an antibiotic that may cause cancer. "We've been exporting products to the U.S. for many years and we respect their standards and we meet their standards."

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Associated Press writer Christopher Bodeen in Shanghai, China, contributed to this report.