If you have plans to purchase live fish at a Beijing supermarket any time soon, chances are you're out of luck. If you haven’t noticed already, a lot of the city’s grocery stores started mysteriously emptying their freshwater fish tanks last week.
It turns out that word of an imminent food safety inspection, concerning the possible contamination of live fish, recently leaked in Beijing, prompting markets to stash their freshwater fish in order to avoid being inspected and potentially fined.
According to local media, numerous chains in Beijing have stopped selling live freshwater fish, including Carrefour, Walmart, Wumart and Yonghui Superstores. Their reasons for the sudden lack of fresh fish varied from fish tank cleaning to lack of supply. Some staffers at BHG Xizhimen confirmed that they were instructed by headquarters to suspend sales of live freshwater fish, and fish wholesalers have also said that many stores have abruptly stopped ordering live fish from them, South China Morning Post reports.
The sudden disappearance of fish from grocery stores has had many speculating that the freshwater fish being sold in the capital are, in fact, contaminated. However, officials are now quashing the rumor.
On Wednesday, Beijing's local food and drug administration posted a notice on their official Weibo account that roughly 90 percent of fish and other aquatic products sold in the capital’s stores pass inspections every year, Global Times reports.
China's Food and Drug Administration confirmed on Thursday that it does plan on conducting health inspections at wholesale markets, supermarkets and restaurants in 12 Chinese cities – including Beijing.
The inspections are expected to be carried out in major cities before December 10. So perhaps things will return to normal after that.
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