< Previous page

Sean McKeon, president of the N.C. Fisheries Association, which represents the state's fishing industry, is more blunt. He describes the United States' poor oversight of imports as "a time bomb waiting to go off."

He said it is a matter of time before imported seafood causes a serious problem. Shipments of seafood rejected in Europe or Japan, where imports are more rigorously tested, are routinely brought to the United States.

"You have a perverse incentive to ship contaminated seafood to the U.S., where there is only a 1 percent chance it's going to be inspected," McKeon said.

His group believes the way to change that is for the United States to establish import laws that require foreign producers to meet the same food safety standards as American producers.

U.S. Rep. Walter Jones, a Republican from Farmville, has introduced a bill that would set such standards. And the federal government is working with China, a frequent source of problems, to improve quality and safety of imported goods.

Up to states

But until those efforts reduce the tide of largely unregulated imports coming into this country, it is up to individual states to look out for their residents.

North Carolina started thinking more strategically about food safety after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Reardon said. It occurred to regulators that terrorists could use the food supply to sicken the population or wreak economic havoc.

Since then, the state has built a more coordinated "food defense" system that can mobilize in the event of an emergency.

The state activated its system this year after an outbreak of botulism triggered a national recall of canned chili and beef stew manufactured by Castleberry Food Co. Within hours of learning about the recall in August, state officials were in the field recovering affected foods.

Reardon said the effort recovered about 35,000 cans of food, including products that would have been served to children in day cares and schools or packed for Boy Scout camping trips. North Carolina collected more cans than the FDA recovered in all other 49 states, Reardon said.

The food surveillance program attempts to stay one step ahead of such problems by finding contaminated foods before they make anyone sick.

The program targets many imported products for testing, such as imported shrimp and fish, and dry spices, which can carry salmonella. It also samples domestically produced foods that are prone to problems, such as packaged salads and sandwiches.

This summer, routine surveillance detected trace amounts of the antibiotic enrofloxacin in frozen silver barb fish imported from Vietnam. Such antibiotics are used to prevent sickness among fish in Asian hatcheries. But they are illegal in the United States, where health experts fear long-term exposure could cause antibiotic resistance.

North Carolina's tests of the fish, purchased at an Asian grocery in Western North Carolina, led to a voluntary recall by the product's distributor.

Last year, testing discovered the bacteria Listeria monocytogenes in tubs of cole slaw, egg salad and macaroni salad in Mount Airy and Hickory.

Listeria can cause stillbirth in pregnant women and mild to serious illness in others. The tests caused the salads' West Virginia manufacturer to recall products from 18 states. North Carolina had no reports of illness associated with the recalled products.

Still, no one thinks surveillance can completely shield consumers from unsafe imports.

"There's no way we can test all products," said David Green, an associate professor of food safety at N.C. State University.

That means some bad products aren't detected in time. Earlier this month, three North Carolina women suffered stillbirths after eating foods contaminated with listeria. State public health officials said all three women ate soft cheeses -- one of the foods the surveillance program routinely samples.

Still, Reardon considers the surveillance program a success whenever it detects trouble.

"When we find it and remove it from the market, we know we are doing our job," he said.

< Previous page