COLOMBO : A consignment of canned fish containers containing arsenic was returned to consignor to China on Thursday,Dec.17 by the Sri Lanka Customs complaining it was unfit for human consumption.
Between July and October, 48 containers containing 768 metric tons of canned fish worth Rs 38.4 million were imported from China to the Port of Colombo.
However, investigations carried out by the Sri Lanka Standards, SLS, Institution has found that the “percentage of arsenic content” in the consignment exceeds the prescribed volume.
In particular, the investigations found that the consignment did not comply with the SLS 591-2014 standard.
Thereby, the containers containing the stock of canned fish were forwarded to the Consumer Protection Division of the Sri Lanka Customs.
Subsequently, the Customs had decided to re-export the canned fish containers back to China.
Accordingly, two containers of these containers were re-exported to China from the Port of Colombo on Thursday .
