China finds lead in export fish

Chinese security authorities disclosed Sept. 3 that they had found massive amounts of lead pellets in blowfish that had been exported to Korea.

The lead pellets were found in the bellies of the remaining blowfish left after exports to Korea by a marine product processing company in China. The lead weights are used for fish net, the Chinese officials said.

The Chinese investigators are probing the incident on the assumption that the seafood processing company, fishermen or middlemen might have inserted the lead in the fish in order to increase its weight, they added.

The relevant officials explained that the seafood processing firm has been engaged in exporting huge amounts of marine products to the United States, Japan and some other countries for the past six years and received approvals from the Food and Drug Administration. But any suspicions surrounding the company`s exports of the contaminated seafood will be thoroughly investigated, the Chinese authorities said.

It was revealed that in China, the marine product distribution system is chaotic, as there are many seafood processing plants and even North Korean products are infiltrated there.