This morning, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) published data reporting that there were 23 total seafood entry line refusals in October (through at least October 23rd) of which three (13%) were of shrimp for reasons related to banned antibiotics.
In addition, the FDA has also now reported an additional eleven seafood entry line refusals in September increasing the total for last month from 24 to 35. Of these additional entry line refusals, one was of shrimp for reasons related to banned antibiotics.
With these four additional entry line refusals in September and October, the FDA has now reported a total of twenty-seven refusals of shrimp entry lines for reasons related to banned antibiotics through the first ten months of 2020. With just two months left in the calendar year, it is likely that, in 2020, the FDA will refuse a smaller number of shrimp entry lines for reasons related to banned antibiotics than in any prior year since 2006.
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Over the last six months, the decline in FDA refusals of seafood entry lines has been incredible. Between 2002 and 2019, the FDA averaged 809 entry line refusals in the half-year period running from May to October. This year the FDA has refused just 159 seafood entry lines over the past five months; an amount representing a staggering 80 percent decline from the prior 18-year historical average.
As the table above shows, this is the second straight year in which the FDA has reported a significant, unprecedented decline in the number of seafood entry line refusals made between May and October. Last year, over that same half-year period, the FDA established a record low by refusing just 565 seafood entry lines, an amount that was 43 percent below the prior 17-year historical average of 996 seafood entry line refusals.