Persistent Food Safety Problems with Seafood Exported from Vietnam Undermines the FDA’s Oversight of Imported Food Products
The Southern Shrimp Alliance today sent a letter to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration alerting the agency to continued incidents of intentional adulteration of shrimp products produced for export in Vietnam. Per the agency’s own accounting, FDA has attempted to address persistent deficiencies in the safety and wholesomeness of Vietnamese seafood exported to the United States since 2005. Nevertheless, […]
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Providing Enforcement Solutions
EXPLORE FURTHER: Food Safety Legislation Economically-Motivated Adulteration Shrimp Fraud Investigations Foreign producers of pond-raised shrimp have powerful economic incentives to use banned substances, such as antibiotics and pesticides, to increase production yields in crowded shrimp ponds and to reduce the risk of total crop failure. Use of these banned substances and various subsidies encourage overproduction and below fair market pricing. […]
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Economically-Motivated Adulteration
In 2009, the FDA looked at the growing problem of economically-motivated adulteration of foods. The FDA is defining economically-motivated adulteration as “the fraudulent, intentional substitution or addition of a substance in a product for the purpose of increasing the apparent value of the product or reducing the cost of its production, i.e., for economic gain.” This includes the use of […]
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Southern Shrimp Alliance Condemns Mislabeling on U.S. Shrimp Packages
Tarpon Springs, Fla.– As the result of a four-week investigation organized by the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, government officials in 17 states reported finding that ice was fraudulently included as part of the labeled weight of seafood sold to consumers, including U.S. wild-caught shrimp. The Southern Shrimp Alliance commends the responsible state officials for investigating this deceptive commercial practice that […]
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Food Safety
To address consumer concerns about the safety of food, the Food and Drug Administration plans to focus on the growing problem of economically-motivated adulteration (EMA) of foods. FDA is defining EMA as “the fraudulent, intentional substitution or addition of a substance in a product for the purpose of increasing the apparent value of the product or reducing the cost of […]
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Shrimp Industry Welcomes Congressional Attention to Seafood Safety
Tarpon Springs, FL—The Southern Shrimp Alliance (SSA) applauds increased Congressional actions to address the problem of imported farm-raised shrimp that are contaminated with illegal antibiotics and chemicals. The legislative attention follows the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) import alert regarding adulterated seafood products and public scrutiny of the FDA’s ability to inspect 1% of food imports. “Legislation to strengthen seafood […]
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U.S. Shrimpers Applauds Alabama Ban of Chinese Catfish, Calls for Increased Testing of Imported Seafood Nationwide
Tarpon Springs, FL— The Southern Shrimp Alliance (“SSA”) applauds the action of Alabama Agriculture Commissioner Ron Sparks to protect consumers by banning the sale of catfish from China after illegal antibiotics were found in the majority of food safety tests. In light of the Food and Drug Administration’s (“FDA”) failure to sufficiently test imported seafood for contaminants, SSA is calling […]