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Worms in imported canned fish: 190 containers detained
View(s):Health inspectors have intensified checks on canned fish in Sri Lanka following reports that some imported consignments contained worms, Health Services Director General Dr Anil Jasinghe said yesterday. According to the Customs Department more than 190 containers of canned fish have already been held back after the Health Ministry and the Sri Lanka Standards Institute declined to give approval for the clearance of the stocks. However, before the Health Ministry imposed the restrictions some of the stocks had been cleared by importers, the Sunday Times learns.
Dr Jasinghe said the Health Ministry had directed public health and food inspectors to closely check canned fish stocks in the market.
He said the Health Ministry had told the Customs and importers to send back the consignments of canned fish to the country of origin, as the ministry feared that the canned fish could be smuggled into local markets if the containers were taken out of the Customs for the stocks to be destroyed in Sri Lanka.
He said canned fish production companies need to maintain quality standards to make sure there are no worms or impurities. Dr. Jasinghe said the importers might have bought the products at a lower price from companies that had poor quality standards.
Public Health Inspectors Union Secretary B.M.M Balasooriya said they were advised to inspect 28 brands of canned fish which have the same manufacture dates, expiry dates and batch numbers of the stocks that were in the containers detained by the Customs.
The Sri Lanka Standards Institute Chairman, H.M.B.C. Herath, told the Sunday Times that they had detected dead worms in the canned fish samples imported from China and alerted the Health Ministry and the Customs. He said that internationally, if fewer than two worms were present in a sample, the products were accepted, but as Sri Lanka’s premier standards institution they were concerned about the worms and refused to certify the products.
The Customs’ Consumer Protection Unit is taking action against the importers who had got some containers released before the Health Ministry ordered the reshipment. Meanwhile, canned fish importer M.S.M. Zaneer said there was a shortage of canned fish in the market. He said that 12 of his containers of carrying 250,000 cans had been detained by the Customs.
Lanka Sathoasa Chief Executive Officer S.H.M Faraaz said that despite the production of local canned fish, there was a shortage in the market in view of the worm issue in the imported stocks.