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Catfish added to list of tainted foods

Wal-Mart pulls the Chinese imports after banned antibiotics are detected.

By STEPHEN NOHLGREN
Published April 27, 2007

Amid mounting concern over tainted foods, Wal-Mart removed frozen Chinese catfish fillets from its stores nationwide on Thursday.

The move came a day after Alabama banned the sale of Chinese catfish because it was contaminated with a banned antibiotic.

The antibiotic presents no immediate health hazard, only a long-run problem. Wal-Mart removed the 4-ounce fillets "to err on the side of caution," spokeswoman Karen A. Burk said in a written statement.

Alabama's test results and Wal-Mart's reaction, combined recently with pet food with contaminated Chinese wheat gluten, come as no surprise, says William Hubbard, who retired in 2005 as the FDA's associate commissioner. The agency's food safety budget has stagnated while imports have skyrocketed, he said.

"We now inspect less than 1 percent of the foodstuffs," Hubbard said Thursday. "It gives incentive to people in China to cut corners. The exporters in these countries know the FDA system won't work."

Alabama Agriculture Commissioner Ron Sparks announced on Wednesday that his agency had tested 20 samples of Chinese catfish and 13 contained fluoroquinolones, an antibiotic banned by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for use on food animals.

"We are going to get this message from Alabama to those foreign countries that if you continue to use chemicals that have been banned by the FDA, when we find it, we're going to stop it," Sparks said.

Alabama also tested 13 samples of Asian pangasius fish and five contained the antibiotic.

Antibiotics do not present an immediate health danger, but they allow harmful bacteria to build up resistance to antibiotics in farmed animals. That stronger bacteria can then become a greater threat to humans.

Representatives of the U.S. catfish industry, under siege from inexpensive imports, contend that foreign competitors use antibiotics to keep their stock alive in polluted ponds.

When it comes to fish, cautious consumers face a problem: They don't always know what they are eating.

Restaurants need not list the country of origin on menus and Chinese catfish are attractive because they typically wholesale for 75 cents a pound less than domestic catfish.

Asian pangasius species, including swai, sutchi and ponga, are widely sold in Florida restaurants as generic white fish. Sometimes they masquerade as grouper, as DNA tests and state inspections have revealed.

On the other hand, retail seafood outlets have to list a product's country of origin. Chinese catfish rarely shows up in Tampa Bay area grocery stores, though Wal-Mart sold some in 2-pound, eight-fillet bags.

The bags say "Catfish fillets" on the front and "Distributed by Wal-Mart Inc" and "Farm-raised catfish. Product of China" on the back bottom of the package.

Burk, communicating with the St. Petersburg Times via e-mail, said only one specific supplier was affected by the removal. But she did not clarify whether all Chinese catfish fillets sold at Wal-Mart came from that supplier.

It was also unclear how much Chinese catfish Wal-Mart carries. Most of the catfish Wal-Mart sells is raised in the United States, Burk said.

Florida found fluoroquinolones in Chinese honey last year and alerted the FDA, said Dr. Marion Aller, director of the Agriculture Department's food safety division. The FDA banned honey imports from four Chinese companies.

Florida has not seen the Alabama fish results, Aller said, but will "monitor this situation and monitor the FDA's response."

FDA officials did not respond to a request for comments.

Material from the Associated Press was used in this report. Staff writer Stephen Nohlgren can be reached at (727) 893-8442 or at nohlgren@sptimes.com.

[Last modified April 26, 2007, 22:27:58]