What to do if your shipment is impounded by the FDA

On April 12, 2011 the FDA issued import alert 99-33, which requires that food imports from six prefectures in Japan be tested for radionuclide contamination before they can be released. Additional products from other prefectures have been added in the subsequent weeks and now includes tea leaves. Products caught in this alert are impounded upon arrival without screening to see if radioactive materials are actually present. The alert can be found at: http://www.accessdata.fda.gov/cms_ia/importalert_621.html

Caution: Importers who have food products caught in the FDA impound are having great difficulty getting them released. Once impounded as "contaminated with Cesium-137" it is very cumbersome to get the product released, regardless of the testing and analysis performed. Currently, only one shipment of food has been released after testing, and this took over three months. The food had spoiled and had to be destroyed. Importers should consider this Import Alert to be a de facto ban on food imports from the six affected prefectures and other food products as listed in the ever changing alert. If you have a shipment in the impound and want to conduct testing to have it released (not recommended), please contact us at (800)477-9691 for a sampling guide.

The requirements for food testing results from airborne releases in the early stages of the Daiichi incident. These releases precipitated out of the air by wet and dry deposition, leaving an erratic pattern of contamination on the gound in Fukushima and in the neighboring prefectures.

Fish and Other Food Imports to the EU

While the EU is requiring some testing of fish products from the Pacific Ocean and other imports from Japan, the testing is not expensive or onerous. The testing process is not slowing the import of fresh fish to any EU country or adding cost to the product. Please see the home page for the EU testing recommendations.