A ping list dedicated to exposing the quality, safety and security issues of food and other products made in China.
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Posted on 05/04/2008 6:55:20 AM PDT by JACKRUSSELL
(WASHINGTON) — In March, inspectors checking Chinese seafood arriving at U.S. ports made some unsettling discoveries: fish infected with salmonella in Seattle and Baltimore, and shrimp with banned veterinary drugs in Florida.
Meanwhile, a shipment intercepted in Los Angeles on March 19 labeled "channel catfish" wasn't catfish at all, although records don't say what it was.
"A lot of those products coming in from overseas, you have no clue as to what is in them," said Paul Hitchens, an aquaculture specialist in Southern Illinois, where cut-rate Chinese catfish are threatening the livelihood of fish farmers.
China has rapidly become the leading exporter of seafood to the United States, flooding supermarkets and restaurants. And while China agreed late last year to improve the safety of its food exports, the inspectors' March findings were not isolated cases.
According to Food and Drug Administration records examined by the Post-Dispatch, inspectors turned away nearly 400 shipments of tainted seafood in a year's time from China.
The records told a troubling tale, but even more troubling was what they didn't tell. Only a tiny fraction of imports are inspected at all, and even fewer are tested.
Imports of seafood have surged dramatically in recent years and account for nearly 80 percent of the seafood consumed by Americans. That translates to 4.8 billion pounds of imported seafood last year out of the 5.8 billion pounds consumed.
The United States is just starting to confront the challenge: In an increasingly globalized food supply, the government — using an antiquated inspection system — is unprepared to keep Americans safe from the dangers arriving at our ports.
"When you look at less than 1 percent of shipments, and sample and test maybe one-fifth of those, there's no way you can protect the American food supply," said Michael Taylor......
(Excerpt) Read more at seattletimes.nwsource.com ...
Not catfish? Maybe they were some those “sewer bass” I’ve heard about but never caught.
Local grocery stores are jam packed with Chinese fish and shrimp. I’m not buying it.
Is that like the “blind Mullet” in Hawaii’s sewer system?
I’ve never been to Hawaii, I for certain haven’t investigated their sewer system so I must plead ignorance.
However I have seen carp being pulled from the river right next to a hospital’s discharge pipe. At least I think they were carp and I assume they were fish. bbbrrrrrrr.......
Thank the Left once again. Our once vast fishing fleets have been tied up for years at the dock because of Leftist environmental legislation prohibiting their economic viability while foreign fishing fleets pillage the seas.
I wonder at times if the Chinese grain crops had been successful the past couple of years if the proposal to ship precooked Chickens and Pork products to the U.S. would have occured already due the high price of grain, thus Chicken and animal feed here caused by the mandate of Ethanol fuels.
Seems like a plan.
Then milk and beef?
In March, inspectors checking Chinese seafood arriving at U.S. ports made some unsettling discoveries: fish infected with salmonella in Seattle and Baltimore, and shrimp with banned veterinary drugs in Florida...
what’s the problem.....at least there is NO lead in the tainted seafood....
china is complying with US outrage!!!!!
Me neither and lots of other items too. Ordinary canned fish and canned fruit are coming from China too. I spend half my time at the grocery store reading labels.
I keep telling my friends that they are poisoning themselves with sushi, basa, tilapia, shrimp, etc from outside the USA.
And you are NEVER told the origin of this "seafood." Trust me, these are fish which have never seen the sea. Who are the Chinese paying off in Congress to permit this atrocity?
bump
I have a friend on the east coast who was under the impression he was getting local fresh fish in the restaurants where he lives.
As an American of Chinese descent, I can honestly advise you not to buy fish and meat products from China. Too little regulation and too much greed on the part of small producers. Over the past 20 years there has been a pent-up urge to make money in the smaller towns and the hinterlands to keep up with the big cities like Beijing, Canton and Shanghai. Too many corners are being cut to do so.
There have been articles in journals directed at the Chinese communities about small uprisings in China over the quality of fish and meat and the sicknesses poor food quality causes. If anything will end the regime, it will be people fed up with corruption and incompetence (not unlike the Italians in recent elections).
Regarding shopping for fish, one has to follow the general rules of purchasing fish in a store like looking at the eyes and skin as well as smelling it. We still prefer to buy live fish like trout, pike and walleye but you then have to look carefully at the purveyor.
Protectionists! Anti-"Free traders"!
A particularly disturbing methods of Chinese aquaculture: raising chickens in cages kept above fish-ponds — a potential source of the salmonella in seafood, he said.
Look how efficient the Chi-Coms are, you bigots!
Just in case, :)
I can kind of understand what goes on in China’s fish production. A small poor farmer knows he can make some money selling fish to a far away market so why worry too much about quality and such.
Turn away enough shipments and someone will start paying attention. I think that’s the only way to change bad habits. Meanwhile I’ll take your advice on all seafood. Thanks!
“Chinese catfish...”
...probably fed ground-up political prisoners by the chicom scum.
The Chinese starved 60 million of their own just 48 years ago and I would rather starve than eat any of their slave labor crap.
The food safety issue is a much bigger problem within the Chinese domestic market.
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