Chloramphenicol scare slows Louisiana seafood sales

July 2002 Newsline

Food safety

As Southern and federal food-safety officials step up efforts to ensure shrimp and crawfish are free of the banned antibiotic chloramphenicol, a rising number of seafood buyers and suppliers are concerned about consumer reaction to the news publicity.

“No doubt the seafood market has slowed locally,” says Harlon Pearce, owner of L A Fish in Kenner, La., a dealer of imported and domestic shrimp and crawfish.

Louisiana restaurants have reported a decline in seafood sales since the state Department of Agriculture and Forestry began testing shrimp and crawfish for chloramphenicol in early May, says Tom Weatherly, director of communications for the Louisiana Restaurant Association.

Louisiana’s restaurant business, the state’s largest private industry, generates $4.5 billion annually, and seafood accounts for a sizable share of foodservice sales.

Wal-Mart reportedly removed all Chinese shrimp and crawfish products from its Louisiana stores after suppliers failed to provide documentation certifying the product had been tested for chloramphenicol and was free of the antibiotic. The state began requiring the tests in late May.

Through mid-June, Louisiana had detained about 2 million pounds of shrimp and crawfish, mostly Asian, containing traces of chloramphenicol. The state House and Senate allotted $700,000 on June 12 to pay for chloramphenicol testing.

Meanwhile, Florida had detained about 27,000 pounds of Asian shrimp through mid-June. Both Florida and Louisiana officials were halting sale of product containing 1 part per billion chloramphenicol or more.

“We want to be on the safe side,” says Dr. John Fruin, chief of the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services’ Bureau of Food and Meat Inspection, “but we don’t want to hurt business.”

The discovery of chloramphenicol by Louisiana and Florida prompted the Food and Drug Administration in mid-June to increase the amount of imported shrimp and crawfish it was testing. At press time, the agency had not found any traces of chloramphenicol in shrimp or crawfish.

The FDA, which lowered its minimum acceptable level from 5 ppb chloramphenicol to 1 ppb in late May, is also working on improving its technology to detect 0.3 ppb chloramphenicol, the level at which Canada and the European Union are testing.

Alabama, Mississippi and Texas are looking at or are already testing shrimp and crawfish for chloramphenicol, adds Bob Odom, commissioner of the Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry.

“All we’re telling consumers is to make sure stores have tested the product or the product has the proper documentation so that they know it’s clean,” says Odom.

Others argue that food-safety officials are unnecessarily frightening consumers by suggesting eating shrimp or crawfish containing traces of chloramphenicol can cause aplastic anemia or leukemia.

“I can’t find the data or literature to support it,” says Dr. Brobson Lutz, health spokesman for the Orleans Parish Medical Society and former health director for the city of New Orleans.

“I commend [Odom] for his efforts to … curb the inappropriate use of antibiotics in aquaculture,” Lutz says in a June 4 letter to Gerald Horst, chairman of the Louisiana Seafood Industry Advisory Board. “[Odom] loses credibility, however, when he implies that eating crawfish or shrimp containing minute amounts of chloramphenicol can cause fatal aplastic anemia. There is no comparison between the adverse effects of [therapeutic] doses of chloramphenicol and trace amounts measured in parts per billion.

“To imply otherwise is akin to saying a drop of vodka in a swimming pool will make a swimmer drunk,” adds Lutz.

“Any sort of regulation should be based on sound science,” concurs Weatherly. “We shouldn’t scare the public with unfounded claims.”

China banned the use of chloramphenicol in aquaculture in March and is implementing measures to ensure shrimp and crawfish are tested for the antibiotic, Chinese officials assured the FDA at a June 5-6 meeting in Washington, D.C.

— Steven Hedlund