First Catfood. Now Catfish.

Breaking news from the F.D.A. today -- the long arm of China's toxic exports has now extended past pet food, toothpaste, and toy trains, right into your seafood dinner.

The Food and Drug Administration announced it will impose broader import control of all farm-raised catfish, basa, shrimp, dace (related to carp), and eel from China, in response to "unsafe residues that have been detected in these products."

What types of unsafe residues, you ask? Antimicrobials with names you can't pronounce (such as nitrofuran, malachite green, gentian violet, and fluoroquinolone), which are approved for use in China but not the U.S.

The worrisome news comes on the same day as the Chinese government announced its most aggressive measure yet to address the food safety, closing 180 food manufacturers found to have used industrial chemicals and additives in food products.

Before you switch to red meat, keep in mind that the F.D.A. stresses that the levels of contamination are very low, there have been no reported illnesses, and they don't plan a recall.

Still, the news might prompt you to wonder, "Just how much of the fish I eat is from China, anyway?" The Commerce Department reckons that China accounts for a full 70 percent of the $70 billion in farm-raised fish ("aquaculture") produced annually around the world. Fully 80 percent of the seafood consumed in the U.S. is imported, and 40 percent of those imports are farm-raised.

Almost makes our foreign oil dependence look good.

by Liz Gunnison