Durbin asks FDA how it tests Asian seafood

by Steve Hedges

Sen. Dick Durbin has asked the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to explain how thoroughly it tests seafood from Asia, especially in light of the “import alert” the FDA has imposed on some seafood from China.

In a letter to FDA Commissioner Andrew von Eschenbach, Durbin, a Democrat, cites a Sept. 16 Tribune story headlined, “As FDA gets tough on China seafood, it fails to hold others to same standard.” The story details how popular seafood from other Asian countries continues to be imported without the safety restrictions placed on China.

Yet many of those Asian countries, the story reports, use the same fish-farming techniques — and experience the same contamination problems — as Chinese fisheries.