The Saudi government recently imposed a ban on rice imports from the United States and a number of food products from China due to the possibility of contamination, the Ministry of Commerce stated according to AFP.
Saudi laboratories were ordered not to release shipments of meat, fish, honey and animal food products to vendors for fear of the foodstuffs containing traces of the chloramphenicol antibiotic. Samples of the American and Chinese imports have been sent for testing at the King Faisal Specialist Hospital.
Saudi authorities also banned the entry of a shipment of 30,000 live sheep from Turkey this month for fear that the animals were carriers of the Rift Valley disease, reported Al-Iqtissadiya. The sheep were being shipped in time for the annual Muslim pilgrimage season. — (menareport.com)
© 2002 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
