Banned Antibiotics Found in Imported Shrimp

According to a new ABC News report, imported shrimp, which makes up 90 percent of the nation’s grocery-store shrimp, has fallen through the cracks of the US food-inspection system. The news outlet tested 30 samples of supermarket shrimp from across the country, and found that approximately 10 percent contained traces of illegal pharmaceuticals, including two suspected carcinogens and an antibiotic known to damage the immune system. Due to the massive influx of foreign shrimp, the Food and Drug Administration only inspects roughly two percent of the imported crustaceans. The FDA says it has a strict zero tolerance policy on banned antibiotics, and says the study’s sample size was too small for it to constitute a real food-safety threat.