Americans love shrimp, and our taste for this seafood has grown by leaps and bounds, to the point that we eat three times the amount we did 35 years ago. Today, we eat on average four pounds of shrimp per person annually.
The FDA decided on its action after some aquaculture-grown shrimp and prawns from Malaysia tested positive for residues from unapproved animal drugs as well as unsafe food additives. Actually, about one-third of all imports of shrimp and prawns from Malaysia in 2015 tested positive for nitrofurans or chloramphenicol.
Almost 90 percent of the seafood consumed in this country is imported from 140 countries around the world. Antibiotic residues are illegal under U.S. food safety laws, and this is very concerning because it points to the differing standards between the U.S. and exporting countries.
So what is the FDA doing about this problem? It has issued the import alert “requesting that the Malaysian government investigate the cause of the problem and develop a plan to prevent continued exports.”
Specifically, the FDA directive is for all shipments of shrimp and prawns from Peninsular Malaysia, consisting of the 11 states and two federal territories located on the Malay peninsula. The alert covers all market forms of shrimp and prawns, raw frozen, cooked, breaded, cakes, balls, and other forms of the product.
Quite frankly, the use of antibiotics in aquaculture has gone on for far too long. In April 2015, Digital Journal reported on testing done by Consumer Reports that found high levels of antibiotics in shrimp and prawn samples purchased in supermarkets across the country.
Urvashi Rangan, Ph.D., is the executive director of CR’s Consumer Safety and Sustainability Group. He said, “It underscores that this commodity is being trucked around all over the world and standards may not be good. It is relying on other countries to have split enforcement — one standard for our country and one for their country — which allows for shrimp coming into our country to not meet regulations.”
So does this mean that Malaysia doesn’t have food safety laws? No, it doesn’t mean that. In January 2005, Health Malaysia enacted regulations for the issuance of health certificates for the importation of meat, seafood, shrimp and prawns into Malaysia. The regulations are exactly the same as our own FDA regulations.
The question, in my mind, is simple. If Malaysia has the same strict requirements about the use of animal antibiotics and harmful chemicals in their imported food products, why are they allowing their own companies to export illegal products to the rest of the world? Maybe we should start looking at growing our own shrimp.
