China’s FDA: cadmium a big problem in seafood

A major Chinese supermarket chain has had to remove seafood products from its shelves after they failed tests by China’s food safety inspectors. 

Excessive traces of cadmium were found in crustaceans and shellfish sold at the Bu Feng Lianhua grocery outlet in the Beijing district of Tongzhou. The testing of the seafood from Bu Feng Lianhua was conducted by the China Food and Drug Administration (CFDA) in Beijing and Tianjin as well as in Xiamen in the south, according to the agency. 

Bu Feng Lianhua, which also trades as Lotus, is owned by local firm Wumart Stores, which took it over from Thai conglomerate Charoen Pokphand (CP) in 2013 through a share-swap deal. 

Excessive levels of cadmium are a “major problem” found by food inspections performed by the CFDA, the organization said. Ingestion of any significant amount of cadmium causes immediate poisoning and damage to the liver and the kidneys, and compounds containing cadmium are carcinogenic.