Carole Engle, the director of aquaculture and fisheries at the University of Arkansas, Pine Bluff, said this was a very important issue.
“This really makes you wonder what else is in imported catfish.”
Many beleive the importation of less-expensive catfish from Asia as a threat to Arkansas’ $500 million-a-year catfish business and the catfish industry throughout the Mississippi Delta.
The state Department of Health and Human Services has said that tests conducted this month found levels of the dye crystal violet, which is prohibited in the United States, in samples of Ocean Park Chinese catfish. The tainted fish has been quarantined and will be destroyed, said department spokeswoman Ann Wright.
Samples of about 27,000 pounds of imported catfish were taken from six Arkansas wholesale distributors this month and tested by the federal Food and Drug Administration laboratories in Denver.
The main purpose of the testing was to determine whether the fish contained antibiotics found in imported catfish in Alabama and Mississippi, Wright said. The tests for antibiotics were negative.
Source: Times Record
Illegal dye Found In Catfish Concerns State Growers
US - The discovery of an antifungal agent in some imported catfish in Arkansas is of major concern for the catfish industry in the state.