Posted on February 25, 2010.
Seafood Regulators say that last year more than 30,000 inspectors have fanned out across the country, working in the vicinity of operations of bad seafood quality and enforce regulations against the use of banned antibiotics, like chloramphenicol and malachite green, which is thought to cause cancer. But officials of the Ministry of Fisheries Office also said that the problems of pollution and water quality are now e biggest challenges for the nation's fish and aquaculture industry, something they rarely admitted in public.
"Water quality is the major issue for Chinese aquaculture," Ding Xiaoming, director of aquaculture in the fisheries office, said Tuesday. "Without good water quality, Chinese aquaculture can develop." He said the government had launched a series of new programs and regulations to educate farmers and combat against quality problems.
The stakes are huge because China is the largest producer and exporter of seafood and a major supplier of the United States and Japan. And with the seas increasingly depleted by overfishing, most of the world turn to China for huge fish farms on land to meet growing consumer demand for everything from shrimp and catfish and tilapia eel.
But after years of spectacular growth, the industry of this country's booming sea is threatened by water shortages, contaminated water supply and illegal use of veterinary drugs. In recent years, Japan and the European Union have imposed temporary bans on imports of seafood from China because of excessive residues of illegal drugs. And last June, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration proposes to block imports of several types of Chinese seafood because of similar food safety concerns.
Some of the banned veterinary drugs are thought to be very effective in helping stressed fish cope with the disease. But fish that are fed such drugs could be toxic to consumers, regulators say. The Chinese government has responded aggressively in recent months by seafood processors blacklisting or revoke the licenses of the seafood export tainted with illegal drugs or other banned substances. Ready Seafood. Please visit www.indomunch.com for more details.
