Banned antibiotics not detected in prawns and shrimp imported from Malaysia, says AVA

SINGAPORE — The Agri-Food & Veterinary Authority of Singapore said it has not detected banned antibiotics in prawns and shrimp imported from Malaysia even as the US Food and Drug Administration announced that shipments of the seafood to the US from Malaysia had traces of chloramphenicol and/or nitrofurans.

In response to questions from TODAY, the AVA said on Friday (April 22) that veterinary drugs are not permitted in food including prawns and shrimp. “Affected prawns found to contain veterinary drug residues such as nitrofurans and amphenicols would not be allowed to be imported or sold,” said the AVA.

In 2015, 56 per cent of imported live, chilled or frozen prawns and shrimp came from Malaysia, amounting to about 9,100 tonnes.

As part of AVA’s routine surveillance and inspection programme, imported prawns and shrimp are monitored and sampled for food safety and compliance with Singapore’s standards and requirements. “Food products that fail our tests will not be allowed for sale,” said the statement.

On April 18, the FDA issued an import alert on prawns and shrimp from peninsular Malaysia due to “testing that found that approximately one-third of imports from peninsular Malaysia contained residues of nitrofurans and/or chloramphenicol.” Once an import alert is issued, shipments may be detained without physical examination at the port of entry.

According to the FDA statement, from Oct 1, 2014 to Sep 30, 2015, the FDA tested 138 samples of shrimp and prawns from peninsular Malaysia and found that 45 samples (32 percent) contained residues of the banned antibiotics.

The agency has requested that the Malaysian government investigate the cause of the residue problem and develop a programme of short-term and long-term actions to prevent the export of this shrimp from Malaysia to the United States, said the statement.

The Star newspaper reported that Malaysia’s Health Ministry has started investigating the FDA’s claims.