China's grip on key food additive (price of vitamin C went up by 200%+)

Christian Science Monitor ^ | 07/20/07 | Ron Scherer and Peter Ford

[TigerLikesRooster]

China's grip on key food additive

By Ron Scherer and Peter Ford

Fri Jul 20, 4:00 AM ET

A sharp rise in the international price of vitamin C is focusing fresh attention on the risks of the world's growing dependence on China for essential food supplies and additives.

China, which exports more than 80 percent of the world's ascorbic acid – also known as vitamin C and a key food preservative – appears to have cut production over the past several months, pushing prices up by more than 200 percent to a four-year high.

Customers have scrambled for supplies of the additive, found in thousands of processed foods from fruit drinks to organic hamburger rolls, from applesauce to granola.

The production cutback follows a Chinese government drive to enforce pollution limits on chemical and pharmaceutical companies, sources in the vitamin industry say. The four biggest Chinese vitamin C producers are also facing a price-fixing suit in a New York court. Since January, prices have risen from $3.40 a kilo to $11 a kilo, according to industry sources.

The reduction in world supply comes in the wake of a series of scandals surrounding Chinese food and drug exports, some of which have been found to be tainted by poisonous chemicals. The Chinese have charged that US exports are tainted and have banned some of them as well. In the wake of the scandals, President Bush on Wednesday appointed an imports safety panel that will report to him in 60 days.

[TigerLikesRooster]

Ping!

[null and void]

Translation: They are being limited to shipping only real Vitamin C.

That has drastically cut the apparent supply...

[TigerLikesRooster]

Right. We have been having lots of toxic placebos.:-)

[Spruce]

The American businesses, especially food producers, that bring their entire manufacturing process home and proclaim such in huge, bold letters will make a killing in the marketplace.

[Greg F]

What kind of rat piss have I been putting into my body rather than vitamin C?

[sweetiepiezer]

What kind of rat piss have I been putting into my body rather than vitamin C?

_______________________________________
You don’t want to know.

[null and void]

You. Don’t. Want. To. Know.

[null and void]

4 stinking seconds!

[M1Tanker]

Thanks Bill Clinton... Thanks for NOTHING.

When one thing happens it is an “isolated incident”. When two occur on the same lines, it could be coincidence (which I do not put stock in). But when multiple events happen, it is a planned action.

From China:
SARS: New disease which acts like a bio-weapon. Seemed to test the failings of Western disease control and the time it takes labs to come up with cures.

Avian Flu: Another new disease (or a mutation) from China. Currently moving through Europe.

Food Poisoning: Multiple factories (all state controlled) with multiple products under Chinese government “inspectors”. Pet food seemed to be a test run on Western government responsiveness.

Children’s toys: Lead paint on “Thomas” trains and other recalls.

Chinese generals stating the USA is China’s number one enemy and must be taken down. Chinese ICBMs are currently pointed at the USA (thanks to Clinton and Loral’s CEO)

Any one of these is “isolated”, but not ALL of them. This is a pattern. We ignore it at our own risk.

[twonie]

And good for them. I will buy from them, and if it costs more, them’s the breaks. I don’t want anything from China after what happened with the dog food. Nothing.

[Diogenesis]

Great. PEG-enhanced, melamine-boosted, ascorbic acid.

[CarrotAndStick]

Judging from the other contaminants, rat piss might actually be safer.

[hunter112]

People who load their bodies up with "supplements" have been asking to have been sold placebos. Now, the placebos are potentially toxic!

Vitamin C is so easy to get from so very many foods, why anyone would shell out good money for Chicom poison is beyond me.

[ModelBreaker]

People who load their bodies up with "supplements" have been asking to have been sold placebos. Now, the placebos are potentially toxic!

Lots of information on this at www.lef.org. The problem with "extra" stuff in Chinese supplements has been known for a long time. It's important to know your supplier.

[3AngelaD]

That would be Chinese rat piss.

[Greg F]

Lots of MSG in chinese rat piss . . . or CRP for short.

[knarf]

Hmmm ... might explain the article Rush read the other day ... “Vitamin C useless in preventing colds”

[No.6]

Exactly. Good quality supplements, like those from LEF, actually deliver benefits and not poisons.

[TheBattman]

I believe you have hit the proverbial nail on the head.

I hate to think how many vitamins and other ingredients we have consumed thinking it was one thing, when it was, in fact, fake - or worse, seriously contaminated.

Exactly why can we not make our own vitamin C? That goes for a lot of the food ingredients we import. Some should not be so expensive domestically that ti could possibly be cost effective to actually ship it here.

The Federal Government used the excuse of “drug purity” to make it illegal to import our own medications by buying it in Canada and other countries (that many of which actually have tighter quality standards than we do) - yet they allow us to import millions of tons of food, food ingredients, vitamins, and other products from China - which is KNOWN to supply contaminated, fake, and even dangerous materials.

[TheBattman]

Yep - makes a lot of sense to import food from a country that considers you their #1 enemy.

[TheBattman]

And America’s #1 retailer is also responsible for the bulk of Chinese goods sold... including their own private label goods... (Great Value).

[Realism]

focusing fresh attention on the risks of the world's growing dependence on China for essential food supplies and additives.

Just imagine what they could do if they were actually mad at us.

[RinaseaofDs]

Vitamin C is also a preservative. It’s an ingredient to other foods that is bought in bulk.

[null and void]

See M1Tanker's post #10.

And remember those people in Washington are not our friends...

[Right Brother]

I don’t want anything from China

Good ruck.

[Red in Blue PA]

Sorry, but this cannot be blamed on Clinton. Let’s face it, Republicans are the most ardent supporters of free markets and globalization.

[Red in Blue PA]

Re: I don’t want anything from China

http://www.amazon.com/Year-Without-Made-China-Adventure/dp/0470116137/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/102-7431656-3592128?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1184950159&sr=8-1

[monkeycard]

This was bound to happen. The model for this is easy, destroy your competition then raise your prices as high as you like. Wake up people!

[nw_arizona_granny]

Ping.

[JACKRUSSELL]

DSM, the only Western producer, says its Scottish factory can't keep up with demand. "We're getting all kinds of calls from people we have never dealt with," says Alexander Filz, a spokesman in Basel, Switzerland. "Something dramatic is going on."

DSM Talks Vitamin Quality with Quali-C Brand
By Jess Halliday
March 27, 2007

DSM Nutritional Products is emphasising quality as the crucial point of differentiation between the vitamin C it produces in the green hills of Scotland - now known as Quali-C - and cheaper material from Asia.

DSM Nutritional Products (formerly Roche Vitamins) has a 70-year track record in vitamin C production. It became the only bulk vitamin C producer in the West in late 2005, when BASF ceased production at its plant in Denmark in response to price pressure from Chinese suppliers, and opted instead to source its supplies under contract from Asian companies.

Now it is leveraging that position with an ingredient brand that speaks to its industry customers of known quality, traceability and supply reliability.

Gareth Barker, head of global marketing, human nutrition and health, told NutraIngredients.com that Quali-C is not simply an ingredient branding exercise. It is an exercise in building awareness that opting for the cheaper material of uncertain provenance could have catastrophic consequences for a manufacturer and its brand further down the line.

The quality of the product is intrinsically linked with perceptions of the customer's consumer brand - and with wider, serious implications such as sustainability, the environment, and water supply.

Increasingly, consumer concerns about such matters are shaping markets, and it is down to ingredient manufacturers to respond by addressing the industrial aspects of safety, said Barker.

Part of the assurance comes down to traceability. DSM boasts the ability to trace right back to the corn field the non-GMO sugar that is the raw material for the fermentation process.

Control systems, quality management, environmental sustainability, safety management, and training are also said to be integral to total quality management.

Quali-C does come at a higher price than Chinese material, but Barker and Martjin Adorf, global marketing manager, declined to expand on the precise mark-up. They said they could not put a price on differentiation, since "the market decides the price, and customers are prepared to pay a premium."

By contrast, with a lot of the vitamin C on the market, they added, there could be a hidden price to pay.

While at a chemical level the vitamin C may be the same, it is important for customers to look beyond this to "what happens if" their material should prove to be contaminated or sub-standard in some other way.

Concerns range from down times to product liability, recalls, damaged relationships consumer uproar - all of which could result in considerable expense that would outstrip the costs of sourcing product of a know quality in the first place.

While there have not yet been any issues with vitamin C, other health ingredients have been hit by quality problems, contamination, and counterfeiting.

"It could be just a matter of time before it hits vitamin C as well".

Ultimately, it would be damaging to the nutrition industry as a whole if, as a result of a problem in consumer products caused by low quality vitamin C, the message should be that vitamin C is bad for you.

DSM has not been immune to the price pressure exerted on the vitamin C market by China. Until late 2005 it had a vitamin C production plant in Belvidere, USA in addition to its remaining facility in Dalry, Scotland.

But despite DSM referring to its unique position as the only vitamin C producer outside Asia in its marketing materials, Barker said this is not the main reason the company is highlighting quality assurance.

"We are in the business of selling high quality nutritional ingredients to all markets around the world. It is more of an evolution," he said.

Adorf added that DSM does not view the present situation as healthy. While overall supply of vitamin C is outstripping demand, it seems there is an undersupply of quality material. DSM says its Dalry plant is utilising its full capacity, and Quali-C is "all taken out of [its] hands every day". Adorf would not disclose the production capacity at Dalry.

As for the potential for future expansion, should current demand continue, he said that is not a decision that would be taken lightly.

But DSM evidently remains wholeheartedly committed to vitamin C.

So much so, in fact, that it has invested heavily in R&D for new, breakthrough production technology.

While it is still too early to say when the new technology will go into production, Barker described it as "a radical innovation".

http://www.foodnavigator.com/news/ng.asp?id=75277-dsm-quali-c-vitamin-c

[mom4kittys]

[JRochelle]

I have emailed Walmart asking them where some of their Great Value brand food is produced.

They have not replied.

I’m starting to thing the ‘Great’ is code for the Great Wall. Of China.

[TheBattman]

SOME of the Great Value line IS labeled. The first one I noticed was the canned mushrooms where are clearly labeled as from China... I suspect a great deal of the other canned foods are from China as well, not to mention many other products.