When the FDA puts out an alert on a country’s exports to America, we sit up and take notice. When the country is China, and the exports include shrimp, catfish, and three other fish, we begin to feel more than a little anxious. The FDA is not allowing five kinds of seafood in unless they’re found free of carcinogens and antibiotics. About four-fifths of the seafood eaten in America is imported, and China is one of the main suppliers, so unless you are subsisting wholly on Esca’s porgy or Suba’s clams, chances are you’re eating Chinese seafood fairly often. The FDA has hastened to reassure Americans that there is, as they tell the New York Times, “no imminent danger to human health, but … prolonged consumption could cause health problems.”
