More About Tainted, Imported Seafood

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Be responsible, buy American-produced seafood

In an earlier blog, I cited an ABC News report on tainted imported seafood. Now AOL News has done a lengthy investigation as well, and the results are not pretty.

Never mind the shrimp and other seafood coming out of the Gulf after the BP oil spill. It would appear that they are not finding as many problems with toxicity as were feared. But researchers say that about 80 percent of the seafood we eat in the U.S. is imported, but less than two percent of those imports are actually inspected for contaminants like filth, antibiotics, chemicals and pathogens.

The small amount of seafood that does get inspected raises red flags, the AOL report notes. Recently the FDA issued an “import alert,” which is like a hazard warning to its port inspectors to detain shipments from specific companies until tests conducted by the importer indicate that the food meets FDA standards.

The alert involved shipments from eight countries because of the known or suspected presence of unapproved or misused drugs in farm-raised shrimp, frog legs, tilapia, the catfish-like basa and other seafood. China led the alert with 15 separate companies out of the 40 cited for previous violations.

Bottom line: Don’t buy imported, farmed seafood at your grocery store. Remember, you are voting with your fork and with your dollars. Make your vote count. Buy either wild-caught seafood, or seafood farmed in the United States.