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

This morning, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) published data reporting that there were 23 total seafood entry line refusals in October (through at least October 23rd) of which three (13%) were of shrimp for reasons related to banned antibiotics.

In addition, the FDA has also now reported an additional eleven seafood entry line refusals in September increasing the total for last month from 24 to 35. Of these additional entry line refusals, one was of shrimp for reasons related to banned antibiotics.

With these four additional entry line refusals in September and October, the FDA has now reported a total of twenty-seven refusals of shrimp entry lines for reasons related to banned antibiotics through the first ten months of 2020. With just two months left in the calendar year, it is likely that, in 2020, the FDA will refuse a smaller number of shrimp entry lines for reasons related to banned antibiotics than in any prior year since 2006.

 

The four shrimp entry lines refused in September and October were for shipments from China and India:
  • Fuqing Yihua Aquatic Food Co., Ltd. (China), a company that, as of September 3, 2020, was placed 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 contaminated with veterinary drug residues by the Division of West Coast Imports on September 28, 2020;
  • Suryo Udyog Limited (India), a company that is currently listed on Import Alert 16-127 (“Detention Without Physical Examination of Crustaceans Due to Chloramphenicol”) as of September 9, 2020, had one entry line refused for shrimp contaminated with chloramphenicol by the Division of West Coast Imports on October 3, 2020;
  • Avanti Frozen Foods 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 one entry line refused for shrimp contaminated with nitrofurans by the Division of Southwest Imports on October 21, 2020; and
  • Nekkanti Sea Foods 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 one entry line refused for shrimp contaminated with nitrofurans and veterinary drug residues by the Division of Southwest Imports on October 21, 2020.
The small number of total seafood entry lines refused in October (23) continues, for the sixth straight month, an unprecedented low in the agency’s history of oversight of imported seafood. Over the previous nineteen years (2001-2019), the FDA has refused an average of roughly 161 seafood entry lines in the month of October. The twenty-three (23) seafood entry line refusals reported last month represents a drop of eighty-six (86) 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 October for each of the last twenty years.

Over the last six months, the decline in FDA refusals of seafood entry lines has been incredible. Between 2002 and 2019, the FDA averaged 809 entry line refusals in the half-year period running from May to October. 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 significant, unprecedented decline in the number of seafood entry line refusals made between May and October. Last year, over that same half-year period, the FDA established a record low by refusing just 565 seafood entry lines, an amount that was 43 percent below the prior 17-year historical average of 996 seafood entry line refusals.

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