Freighter (© Photographer: Victor Borilov | Agency: Dreamstime.com)

Americans continue to have reason to worry about the effect of globalization on the safety of the country’s food supply.

The Associated Press has reported that, “At least 1 million pounds of suspect Chinese seafood landed on American store shelves and dinner plates despite a Food and Drug Administration order that the shipments first be screened for banned drugs or chemicals.”

An “import alert” for frozen shrimp, catfish and eel arriving from China, required that every shipment be held by the FDA until it passed a laboratory test. An investigation by the AP found that since last fall, one out of every four shipments got through with no inspection. Normally, the FDA inspects just 1% of the cargo it oversees, but goods for which an import alert has been issued are supposed to be held until testing has proved them to be safe.

China is America's biggest foreign source of seafood. FDA warnings to the Chinese regarding contaminated seafood date back to 2001.

To read the Associated Press report as it was posted by Yahoo! News go to: Seafood from China wasn't screened

To view a previous post on the health risks associated with food imports go to: Dangers Come with Globalized Food Supply

To view a previous post on concerns over food imports from China go to: FDA Acts Against Seafood From China