Hehe, was just going to ping you M4K, but you’re already here :)
We’re even importing catfish? This is nuts!
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I’m giving this article to my brother who eats catfish regularly....
Alabama bans six brands of seafood from China
Agriculture Commissioner Charles Bishop announced a statewide ban June 25 on the sale of six brands of shrimp and crawfish from China after seafood samples taken from Alabama grocery store shelves and seafood suppliers tested positive for a restricted antibiotic.
The shrimp and crawfish were found to contain traces of chloramphenicol, an antibiotic that triggers the rare blood disorder aplastic anemia and is linked to a form of leukemia. The federal government prohibits chloramphenicol in food-producing animals and animal feed products in the United States.
The news was cheered by many shrimpers in south Alabama, who this year have faced high fuel prices and record-low shrimp prices, which they blame on imported competition.
Alabama's ban comes a month after a similar ban by Louisiana. The European Union has banned all imports of crawfish and shrimp from China after detecting chloramphenicol. Alabama's ban does not apply to brands of Chinese seafood that have not tested positive for the antibiotic.
Bishop said the ban applies to Sea Best Raw Salad Shrimp, Sea Best IQF Raw Salad Shrimp Frozen, IQF Frozen Raw Salad Shrimp Sea Best, Sea Best Frozen Whole Boiled Crawfish, Sea Best Whole Boiled Crawfish, and Bernard's Cleaned Peeled Crawfish Tails with Fat.
Bishop said his staff began contacting grocery chains, restaurant suppliers, and cold storage warehouses on June 24, telling them not to sell any more of the banned brands from China until the U.S. Food and Drug Administration can do its own tests to verify Alabama's results. If those tests are positive, the banned seafood will have to be destroyed, he said.