"Import Alert" For Chinese Seafood Ignored

(AP)  At least 1 million pounds of suspect Chinese seafood landed on American store shelves and dinner plates despite a Food and Drug Administration order that the shipments first be screened for banned drugs or chemicals, an Associated Press investigation found.

The frozen shrimp, catfish and eel arrived at U.S. ports under an "import alert," which meant the FDA was supposed to hold every shipment until it had passed a laboratory test.

But that was not what happened, according to an AP check of shipments since last fall. One of every four shipments the AP reviewed got through without being stopped and tested. The seafood, valued at $2.5 million, was equal to the amount 66,000 Americans eat in a year.

FDA officials stuck the pond-raised seafood on their watch list because of worries it contained suspected carcinogens or antibiotics not approved for seafood.

No illnesses have been reported, but the episode raises serious questions about the FDA's ability to police the safety of America's food imports.

"The system is outdated and it doesn't work well. They pretend it does, but it doesn't," said Carl R. Nielsen, who oversaw import inspections at the agency until he left in 2005 to start a consulting firm, FDAImports.com. "You can't make the assumption that these would be isolated instances."

If the system cannot stop known risks, Nielsen said, how can it protect against hidden dangers, such as the ingredients from China that made toothpaste potentially poisonous and killed dozens of pets earlier this year?

"The FDA itself admits that this seafood needs inspection, but then doesn't have the capability to inspect it," Democratic Sen. Charles Schumer, a critic of the FDA's food safety record, said in reaction to the AP's findings. "This is an example of government failure at its worst."

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.

President George W. Bush has asked a Cabinet-level panel to recommend better imported food safety safeguards. Chinese officials have promised to inspect fish farms closely for the use of drugs and chemicals, even as they called the FDA's testing mandate illegal under world trade rules.

FDA officials acknowledged that some shipments slip through import alerts, but said overall they work.

"Any time you introduce a human element into something, I don't think you can necessarily guarantee 100 percent," said Michael Chappell, the official responsible for field inspections and labs.

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[vallel]

good CBS is posting this notice regarding the not very efficient FDA. Make a special investigative assignment and look for employees ( the ones that have to do real work)and investigate the lack of power this agency have to stop violative products to come into the country.

[erasmus6]

Yes, everyone is wasting their time if they think the government is going to do what needs to be done. When the FDA wasn't doing their job to begin with, you can hardly expect anything is going to change when they close up 7 offices.

It is all up to the PEOPLE.

[toldyouso21]

This situation is soooooooo pathetic.
skrew china if they don't know how to do it right.
Shame on the U.S. government for the krap they shovel us.

Posted by rushlimpdrug at 11:20 AM : Aug 08, 2007


No one shovels stuff into a closed mouth. We keep going out and buying this stuff...so why should they stop when the money is still rolling in. Fortunately, no one has ever forced Americans to buy anything. If there is any shame, it should be shame on Americans for not exercising the power of a boycott to effect change in their own government.

From boycotting bad/questionable seafood, to boycotting cheap clothes from China and labor from Mexico--we could stop a lot if we were not too lazy and self centered to do so. Don't like illegals? Stop eating at the restaurants they work at or hiring them to do the work or patronizing places that do?

Don't like outsourcing? Stop buying computers that are now based in India and cars with parts made in Mexico. Scared of bad seafood or toothpaste? Stop buying it? Don't want to inconvenience ourselves--then roll with it and stop complaining.

[toldyouso21]

But the big Bozos in Washington that do nothing but seat in the big offices with air conditioning are using the money destined for Imports operation in big bonuses for them. The system is screwed, because there are too many managers and few field people.
Posted by vallel at 10:17 AM : Aug 08, 2007

Now...the question is, are there any signs of kick back to FDA or USDA officials while they reroute assignments away from seafood and claim lack of resources for their wilful failures to enforce?
the FDA and their field people have been subject to bribes and 'rewards' to allow product and actions of companies to go unchecked or to slip through. More field people will not help, nor more money thrown at the problem.

In America, Congressmen make careers out of lying and stealing and schmoozing and milking the public.

They do it soooo long that they do not have a clue how the rest of us live or have to struggle--we are a theory, a problem to work around while they feather their own nests.

[my2centss]

"The FDA itself admits that this seafood needs inspection, but then doesn't have the capability to inspect it," Democratic Sen. Charles Schumer"

Sounds like another tax to me. Just tack it onto the gasoline, at this point we will not even notice it.

[dzfromsc]

The FDA really is understaffed...believe me, I know.

FDA officials "are diligently doing the inspections as they see fit," Paterson said.
Isn't that thier job?
"...we respect their standards and we meet their standards."
Never have you met our standards.

twylacrat: You're right!

[drinuk]

The FDA are too busy running around on behalf of their Paymasters Big Pharma, banning vitamins and other natural medicines. The priorities of the organisation would be laughable were they not so serious. All we hear is that they are under staffed, the truth is that they could not organise a P i s s Up in a brewery unless someone shoved a few dollars in their wallet.

[rushlimpdrug]

"The FDA itself admits that this seafood needs inspection, but then doesn't have the capability to inspect it," Democratic Sen. Charles Schumer

This situation is soooooooo pathetic.
skrew china if they don't know how to do it right.
Shame on the U.S. government for the krap they shovel us.

[yamuttya]

Economics 101
The sooner you boycott this trash, the sooner they will clean up their disgusting act.
Any questions ??

[nskduke]

Screw China imports.