Warnings against residue of banned substance on tra fish

Ngoc Hung

The EU’s Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF) last month detected 11 batches of tra fish from the country with Nitrofurazone, a prohibited substance, according to the National Agro – Forestry – Fisheries Quality Assurance Department (NAFIQAD).

In addition, South Korea’s National Fishery Products Quality Management Service (NFQS) said it would enhance inspections of substances in the Nitrofuran group on tra fish imported from Vietnam. Inspections will be applied on 3% of batches arriving there between November 5 and December 31 this year.

This is the first time Vietnamese frozen tra fish being found with residue of a banned substance. In previous years, only frozen shrimp was found to have prohibited antibiotic residues such as Trifluralin and Ethoxyquin. At some point, Japan checked 100% of frozen shrimp batches from Vietnam.

NAFIQAD has ordered local tra fish producers and processors to inspect and monitor fish farming to ensure farmers’ compliance regarding the use of chemicals and antibiotic substances as permitted by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

On the other hand, companies must control antibiotic residues, especially Nitrofuran and Chloramphenicol, during their manufacturing processes.

In a related development, NAFIQAD has stopped checking Triphosphates in fried fish and surimi, Polyphosphates in tra fish and basa fish fillet and frozen shrimp. Meanwhile, Trifluraline inspection in seafood is reduced to one per 20 batches.

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