What Are CIQ Certified Ponds?
In 2006, dozens of shipments of fish from Chinese fish farms were rejected by United States inspectors because they did not meet American safety standards. Fish cultivated in ponds are an important export industry in China. To calm the scare that rose in America and to protect its export of farm-raised fish, China set up the Chinese Inspection and Quarantine, or CIQ, program to certify the safety of its fish ponds. Does this Spark an idea?
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China Fish Ponds
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China exports more than a billion pounds of fish to the United States each year, more than any other single country in the world. Some fish are taken from rice paddies and along the ocean, but many fish are raised in ponds, particularly tilapia and catfish. It is an important agricultural export for the Chinese.
The Problem
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Some Chinese fish farmers used various antifungals that prevent diseases in fish by retarding the growth of fungus and bacteria. Some of those chemicals are banned by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, or FDA, as potential cancer-causing chemicals. Among the chemicals involved are malachite green, fluoroquinolones, nitofurans and gentian violet. Though the FDA concedes the risk is small, nevertheless, they are banned for human consumption in the United States.
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The Response
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Beginning in 2006, dozens of shipments of catfish, eel and tilapia were rejected in random inspections after failing to meet FDA's standards of safety for America. In June, 2007, the FDA issued an import alert on all farm-raised seafood from China, which meant no such products could enter the United States without first passing a physical inspection. Although fish caught in the wild were not affected by the alert, China is the largest single supplier of imported seafood to the United States, supplying 18 percent of the total seafood imports.
China Inspection and Quarantine (CIQ)
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In the five-year plan China issued in 2010, it set up a certification process run, in part, by the China Academy of Inspection and Quarantine to certify that certain fish farm ponds met the FDA safety standards in an effort to lift the import alert and the public scare. The plan, at the time of publication, is to set up a full network of safety inspection facilities throughout Chinese provinces by 2015. Chinese fish farmers actively seek to have their ponds CIQ certified, showing they do not use any banned antifungals, in order to improve sales in the United States and other countries that ban them.
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References
- "USA Today"; Chinese Fish Crisis Shows Seafood Safety Challenges; Julie Schmit et al.; July 2007
- World Fish Center; "Tilapia Farmers in Southern China"; Meen Chee Hong
- U.S. Food and Drug Administration: Questions and Answers on FDA's Import Alert...
- "Consumers Union"; Chinese Seafood Imports: Safety and Trade Issues; Jean Halloren; April 2008
- Infofish: Ambitious Plan to Improve Food Safety
Resources
- Photo Credit China Photos/Getty Images News/Getty Images
