China needs a PR company that specializes in damage control. Walmarts nationwide are pulling their supply of 4oz frozen catfish fillets due to recent finding in Alabama that the catfish may be contaminated with an anti-biotic banned in the US. From CBS4:

Fluoroquinolone was reportedly banned by the FDA in 1997, but Florida food safety experts officials told CBS-4’s Al Sunshine that it is not an imminent threat to public health and it’s more of an issue of keeping unneeded antibiotics out of the human food supply.

Wal-Mart officials say they that while working closely with their suppliers and the FDA, they became aware earlier in the week of a potential issue with a one of their 4 oz. frozen catfish fillets.

The store immediately sent out word to all of their locations nationwide to remove the product from stores.

The catfish investigation started in Alabama. From Forbes:

Alabama Agriculture Commissioner Ron Sparks announced a stop sale order in the state for all catfish from China after antibiotics banned in the United States were found in Chinese catfish.

Sparks said 20 samples of catfish from China were collected for testing by the department of agriculture over the last few weeks. Of those samples, 14 tested positive for fluoroquinolones, an antibiotic banned by the FDA since 1997.

“We are sending notice today that we are not going to continue to sit by and let these foreign countries produce their food at a different standard than we ask our farmers to produce by and then send those products in here at a cheaper price,” Sparks said Wednesday.

China, China, China. Damn. Now everyone is looking. The recall affects around 214,260 lbs of catfish in Alabama. —MEGHANN MARCO

Walmart Pulls Contaminated Catfish From Stores [CBS4]
Alabama Bans Chinese Catfish [Forbes]

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