Today's post from "Sham vs. Wham: The Health Insider" may be of
interest to this group. (Google the site for full text and other
references below).

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The problems experienced by Americans and others around the world with
Chinese exports has now reached the US food chain, where inexpensive
farmed fish have been found to contain a number of illegal and
unhealthy ingredients. (Search this site for "China" for references to
a number of other reported problems with their dietary supplements,
personal care items, toys, etc.)

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Thursday announced it is
blocking the import from China of five species of seafood until their
importers can prove they are not contaminated. Dr. David Acheson, the
agency's assistant commissioner for food protection, stated that "FDA
is initiating an import alert against several species of imported
Chinese farmed seafood because of numerous cases of contamination with
drugs and unsafe food additives."

The species involved here are catfish, eel, shrimp, basa and dace, he
said. (Basa is a fish much like catfish; dace is similar to carp.)

The medications cited include the antimicrobials nitrofuran, malachite
green, gentian violet and fluoroquinolones. These chemicals have been
shown to cause cancer in laboratory animals. In addition, use of
fluoroquinolones in food-producing animals can result in antibiotic
resistance.

None of them is approved for use in farmed seafood in the United
States. For many years now, US seafood farmers have been arguing that
China is undercutting them and producing an inferior product. I
personally think it is time that we went on a "China-free diet" and
ask our grocers where their fish comes from before we purchase it for
our family's consumption.

"FDA is taking this action to protect the public health of the
American people," the FDA representative said. He also admitted that
the products "could cause serious health problems if consumed over a
long period of time."

China is the world's largest producer of farmed fish, accounting for
70 percent of the total produced, he said. It is the third-largest
exporter of farmed fish to the United States. In another piece of news
today, China has been discovered by Brazil to be using fake Brazilian
export certificates for their beef sales, claiming to buyers all over
the world that Chinese beef is from Brazil. Unbelievable . . .

D.