The Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock (MoFL) will send its proposals soon for inclusion in the import policy for fishes considering the recently found hazardous substances to health in imported containers at Chittagong port, officials said.
"We are going to send our proposals soon to the ministry of Commerce and National Board of Revenue for carrying out all types of chemicals and antibiotic tests in import policy which we do before exporting fishes to different destinations across the globe," MoFL Joint Secretary Fisheries Anisur Rahman told the FE.
If any types of heavy metal or antibiotic are found in local or imported fishes, it should be destroyed for the sake of public health, as per the Fish Inspection and Quality Control Rules 1995 (amended in 2008).
Anisur Rahman said: "If any harmful chemical and antibiotic are found in our export container in laboratory test in importing country then we have to bring back the container at our own cost and destroy it."
"But in our import policy there is no specific provision for chemical test other than formalin and also radiation in our seaport which is very harmful to public health. So we have decided to send our recommendations to the authorities concerned to include these," he added.
"We have taken the initiative as we have found cadmium and lead at higher level than standard limit that are hazardous elements. These elements cause liver and kidney diseases and cancer", he said.
DoF's Fish Inspection and Quality Control (FIQC) lab (Dhaka) in charge Md Manik Mia said: "We conduct different types of tests before exporting our fishes to different countries across the world."
"The tests include antibiotic (Chloramphenicol and Nitrofuran), dyes (malachite green (MG), leucomalachite green (LMG), crystal violet (CV) leucocrystal violet (LCV), bacteria (Vibrio cholerae and Salmonella) and Standard Plate Count (T coli and F coli)," Mr Manik said.
Recently Chittagong Customs House (CCH) has made testing of cadmium and lead, among others, mandatory before releasing any container of imported fish.
The decision was taken following presence of cadmium and lead, found after random testing of 22 containers of fish, imported from the Middle-Eastern countries to the Chittagong Port.
Generally fishes like Ruhi, Katla, Mrigel, Boal, Air, Chital, Pabda, Saad, Chokori, and Mardin are imported in Bangladesh. The total volume of imported fishes is around 60,000 tonnes to 70,000 tonnes yearly.
These fishes are imported from different countries including Myanmar, India, Pakistan, Vietnam, Oman, Baharain, Qatar, and Yemen.
