Concerns raised that melamine contamination also in seafood

China is the world's largest producer of farm-raised seafood, exporting billions of dollars worth of shrimp, catfish, tilapia, salmon and other fish. The U.S. imported about US$2 billion of seafood products from China in 2007, almost double the volume of four years earlier, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

But industry experts and businesspeople in China that say melamine has been routinely added into fish and animal feed to artificially boost protein readings. And new research suggests that, unlike in cows and pigs, the edible flesh in fish that have been fed melamine contains residue of the nitrogen-rich substance.

Melamine, commonly used in plastics and dishware, can lead to urinary problems such as kidney stones and even renal failure. Last year pet foods made with melamine-laced ingredients from China sickened and killed thousands of dogs and cats in the U.S. This year, infant formula tainted with the chemical has been linked to illness in 294,000 small children and six deaths in China, according to China's Ministry of Health.

In the U.S., fish from China can be found everywhere from supermarkets' frozen food to candle-lit tables at posh restaurants.

“China's a big place, and it does a lot of processing, and cheaply too,” said Brian Dedmon, purchasing manager for the Fish King distribution plant in Burbank, Calif.

Fish King, which supplies hundreds of restaurants and has a retail store, says it buys processed snowcrab meat, squid and other seafood from China both to both meet market demand and because the price is competitive. Dedmon said the company relies on government inspections, its importers, and its own experience to insure the fish it buys is safe.

“We're definitely concerned about melamine, but by the time the fish gets to us, health issues should've been taken care of by the government agencies and brokers that we go through,” he said.

But while some American fish importers are voluntarily testing for melamine, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which is responsible for ensuring the safety of imported fish, currently doesn't require seafood products to be screened for melamine. Yet research from its own scientists have raised a warning flag.

Laboratory studies in the U.S. of melamine-fed catfish, trout, tilapia and salmon by the FDA's Animal Drugs Research Center found that fish tissues had melamine concentrations of up to 200 parts per million. That's 80 times the maximum “tolerable” amount set by the FDA for safe consumption.

Iddya Karunasagar, a United Nations' fish-product safety expert in Rome, said that the FDA's research suggests that fish would have to ingest large amounts of melamine to pose a health threat to humans, something that he considered unlikely. However, he said there was no data on melamine levels in Chinese-made fish and animal feed.

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