| (Washington, D.C.) U.S. Representative Mike Ross (AR-04) Thursday requested in a letter to the Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) an immediate ban and investigation on all imported Chinese foreign fish being sold under the guise of catfish, until further testing confirms China’s compliance with U.S. food and safety standards.
“Our food supply is critical to our national security and we must be confident we are importing the best and safest food sources for our families,” Ross said. “To ensure the safety and health of all Americans, we must place an immediate, nationwide ban on these potentially contaminated fish and have them removed from our stores.”
Recently, tests in Alabama found traces of the antibiotic fluoroquinolone in 13 of 20 samples of imported fish from China. This led Alabama’s Agriculture Department to place an official ban on the sale of all fish labeled as catfish imported from China. Subsequently, Wal-Mart stores nationwide have removed the entire stock of frozen Chinese fish sold under the guise of catfish fillets.
“This letter requests that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration take immediate precautionary action and ban foreign fish imported from China until further testing can be completed,” Ross said. “I applaud the state of Alabama for conducting such stringent tests to uncover this risk and I want to thank Mayor JoAnne Bush of Lake Village for bringing this matter to my attention and for her commitment to the catfish farmers of Arkansas.”
Fluoroquinolone is an antibiotic that has harmful affects when consumed and was banned in the Untied States by the FDA in 1997. Ross’ letter to FDA Commissioner Dr. Andrew Von Eschenbach calls for immediate precautionary action as the amount of this contaminated foreign fish in circulation remains unknown.
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