Those products will be detained at the border "until the shipments are proven to be free of residues from drugs that are not approved in the United States for use in farm-raised aquatic animals," the FDA said.
FDA officials said that a test of shipments from October 2006 through May 2007 found antimicrobial contaminant agents. Among other things, those contaminants can increase the resistance of bacteria to antibiotics, endangering health and lives in the future.
The contaminants include antibiotics banned for use in animals or seafood and substances that can cause cancer. All of the contaminants the FDA found are prohibited for use in animals or seafood in the United States and some of them are prohibited in China as well, officials explained.
"There's been a continued pattern of violation with no signs of abatement," David Acheson, the FDA's assistant commissioner for food safety told the New York Times. About 81 percent of the nation's seafood is imported and China, the world's leading farm-raised fish producer exported $1.9 billion worth of fish to the U.S. in 2006, the Times reports.
The FDA action comes after several southern states had already imposed bans on sale of Chinese fish until it had passed tests. About 60 percent of the fish rejected at U.S. borders comes from China.
Recently Chinese fish have been rejected for being filthy, containing pesticides or salmonella bacteria.
This is only the latest in a series of problems with Chinese imports. In the past few weeks, federal regulators have been busy recalling defective products from China. Those products include toy trains painted with toxic lead paint, defective tires and toothpaste contaminated by the poison diethylene glycol; a toxic ingredient more commonly found in antifreeze. Earlier in the year, pet food made with a toxic ingredient imported from China sickened and killed pets across the U.S., leading to the nation's largest-ever pet food recall.
