The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today released to the public information regarding entry line refusals for the month of September. The agency reported refusing a total of 95 seafood entry lines last month. Of these, only 2 (2.1%) were of shrimp entry lines refused for reasons related to banned antibiotics.
This was the lowest total amount of entry lines reported as refused by the agency since December 2013. For this year, August represents the first month in which there were less than ten entry line refusals for shrimp for reasons related to banned antibiotics. It was also the first month of 2015 in which less than 100 seafood entry lines, in total, were refused by the agency:
|
Month
|
Shrimp Entry Line Refusals for Antibiotics
|
Total Seafood Entry Lines Refused
|
|
January 2015
|
58
|
181
|
|
February 2015
|
24
|
106
|
|
March 2015
|
58
|
154
|
|
April 2015
|
51
|
167
|
|
May 2015
|
12
|
102
|
|
June 2015
|
29
|
134
|
|
July 2015
|
54
|
175
|
|
August 2015
|
72
|
216
|
|
September 2015
|
2
|
95
|
Through the first eight months of the year, the FDA has now refused a total of 360 entry lines of shrimp products for reasons related to banned antibiotics. This exceeds the total amount of entry lines of shrimp refused by the FDA for the same reasons (331) over the first seven years for which data are available (2002-2008).
The two entry line refusals involved shrimp shipped from India and Malaysia:
- Jayalakshmi Sea Foods Pvt. Ltd. (India), a company listed on Import Alert 16-129 for nitrofurans on February 5, 2015 but not currently listed on Import Alert 16-124, had one entry line refused for shrimp contaminated with veterinary drug residues in the Los Angeles District; and
- Ria Budimas Trading (Malaysia), a company listed on Import Alert 16-129 for nitrofurans on March 2, 2015 at two different addresses but not currently listed on Import Alert 16-124, had one entry line refused for shrimp contaminated with nitrofurans in the Atlanta District.