Last week, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released information regarding import refusals for December. Last month, the FDA reports that only 1 out of the 105 (0.9%) total seafood entry line refusals were of shrimp for reasons related to banned antibiotics.
The one shrimp entry line refused by the FDA for banned antibiotics in December was from Myanmar:
- Myeik Zenith Industrial Co., Ltd. (Myanmar), a company that is not currently listed on Import Alert 16-124, Import Alert 16-127, or Import Alert 16-129, had one entry line refused for shrimp contaminated with veterinary drug residues by the Division of Northeast Imports on December 29, 2017.
This refusal marked the first time that the FDA has reported refusing a shipment of shrimp from Myanmar for reasons related to banned antibiotics.
Additionally, the FDA has now released year-end data regarding import refusals and has revised its reporting to omit sixteen refusals that had initially been reported in August and September. These sixteen entry line refusals had been attributed to three different companies:
- Ca Mau Seafood Processing & Service Joint Stock (Vietnam), a company that was added to Import Alert 16-124 for enrofloxacin in its shrimp on December 8, 2016 and, separately, for sulfamethizole in its shrimp on February 28, 2017, was initially reported to have had one entry line refused for shrimp contaminated with veterinary drug residues by the Division of Northeast Imports on August 8, 2017;
- Manwill Trading Company (Hong Kong), a company that is not listed on Import Alert 16-124, Import Alert 16-127, or Import Alert 16-129, was initially reported to have had one entry line refused for shrimp contaminated with veterinary drug residues by the Division of Northeast Imports on August 14, 2017; and
- Yantai Wei-Cheng Food Co., Ltd. (China), a company that has not been exempted from Import Alert 16-131, was initially reported to have had fourteen entry lines refused for shrimp contaminated with veterinary drug residues by the Division of West Coast Imports on September 7, 2017.
With these adjustments, the FDA reported refusing just 55 entry lines of shrimp for reasons related to banned antibiotics in 2017. As shown in the chart below, this is the lowest total number of shrimp entry line refusals for banned antibiotics reported since 2012. Other than 2012, there had not been less than sixty entry line refusals of shrimp reported for banned antibiotics since 2007.
