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For Fifth Straight Month, FDA Sets Record Low for Refusals of Imported Seafood

Yesterday, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) published data reporting that there were 24 total seafood entry line refusals in September (through at least September 24th) of which three (12.5%) were of shrimp for reasons related to banned antibiotics. In addition, the FDA has also now reported an additional six seafood entry line refusals in August increasing the total from 26 to 32. Of these additional entry line refusals, two (6.3%) were of shrimp for reasons related to banned antibiotics.

The FDA has reported a total of twenty-three refusals of shrimp entry lines for reasons related to banned antibiotics through the first three-quarters of 2020.

The five shrimp entry lines refused in August and September were for shipments from China, India, and Thailand:
  • Phatthana Frozen Food Co., Ltd. (Thailand), a company that is currently listed on Import Alert 16-124 (“Detention Without Physical Examination of Aquaculture Seafood Products Due to Unapproved Drugs”) as of September 29, 2020 for enrofloxacin in its shrimp, had one entry line refused for shrimp contaminated with chloramphenicol by the Division of Northeast Imports on September 22, 2020 and one entry line refused for shrimp contaminated with veterinary drug residues by the Division of Southwest Imports on September 22, 2020;
  • Neeli Aqua Private Limited (India), a company that is not currently listed on Import Alert 16-124 (“Detention Without Physical Examination of Aquaculture Seafood Products Due to Unapproved Drugs”), Import Alert 16-127 (“Detention Without Physical Examination of Crustaceans Due to Chloramphenicol”), or Import Alert 16-129 (“Detention Without Physical Examination of Seafood Products Due to Nitrofurans”), had two entry lines refused for shrimp contaminated with nitrofurans and veterinary drug residues by the Division of Northeast Imports on August 28, 2020; and
  •  Fuqing Yihua Aquatic Food Co., Ltd. (China), a company that is currently on the green list of Import Alert 16-131 (“Detention Without Physical Examination of Aquacultured, Shrimp, Dace, and Eel from China – Presence of New Animal Drugs and/or Unsafe Food Additives”), had one entry line refused for breaded shrimp had one entry line refused for shrimp contaminated with nitrofurans by the Division of West Coast Imports on September 9, 2020.
The small number of total seafood entry lines refused in September (24) continues, for the fifth straight month, an unprecedented low in the agency’s history of oversight of imported seafood. Over the previous eighteen years (2002-2019), the FDA has refused an average of roughly 149 seafood entry lines in the month of September. The 24 seafood entry line refusals reported last month represents a drop of 84 percent below this historic average. The chart below sets out the total number of seafood entry lines refused by the FDA in the month of September for each of the last nineteen years.

 

Over the last fifth months, the decline in FDA refusals of seafood entry lines has been stunning. Between 2002 and 2019, the FDA averaged 809 entry line refusals in the five-month period running from May to September. This year the FDA has refused just 159 seafood entry lines over the past five months; an amount representing a staggering 80 percent decline from the prior 18-year historical average.

As the table above shows, this is the second straight year in which the FDA has reported a massive, unprecedented decline in the number of seafood entry line refusals made between May and September. Last year, over that same five-month period, the FDA established a record low by refusing just 415 seafood entry lines, an amount that was 50 percent below the prior 17-year historical average of 832 seafood entry line refusals.

The massive decline in the FDA’s refusals of seafood entry lines has corresponded to incredibly high levels of seafood imports. Although the total value of seafood imported under Chapter 3 of the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States, as well as the four-digit codes 1603, 1604, and 1605 has declined each of the last two years, they have remained at levels of around $12 billion. The $11.9 billion in total seafood imported in 2020 represents a 33 percent increase over the prior 18-year historic average of $8.9 billion in seafood import value over the first seven months of each year.

 

In the context of high levels of seafood imports, the FDA’s reporting of massive declines in the number of seafood entry lines refused at the border appears to reflect policy choices severely weakening the agency’s oversight of imported seafood.

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