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Two New York City businessmen have pleaded guilty in a scheme to distribute more than 500,000 tubes of counterfeit toothpaste imported from China. Fifty-one-year-old Saifoulaye Diallo and 47-year-old Habib Bah each face up to 10 years in prison after entering their pleas Thursday in federal court in Brooklyn. Prosecutors say the fake Colgate toothpaste was shipped to discount stores across the United States. They say it had no fluoride and contained microorganisms that posed health threats, but no illnesses have been reported.

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. - Poisoned pet food. Seafood laced with potentially dangerous antibiotics. Toothpaste tainted with an ingredient in antifreeze. Tires missing a key safety component. U.S. shoppers may be forgiven if they are becoming leery of Chinese-made goods and are trying to fill their shopping carts with products free of ingredients from that country. The trouble is, that may be almost impossible.

THE US has added farm-raised fish and shrimp to a growing list of Red Chinese products deemed unsafe for US consumers. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said it would block the import of farmed Communist Chinese seafood until importers could prove the shipments were free of unsafe contaminants. The move comes just days after politicians urged a recall of up to 450,000 Red Chinese tyres because of safety defects and weeks after thousands of cats and dogs died because of tainted Communist Chinese pet food. Dangerous toys, fake drugs, toxin-coated cosmetics, illicit pesticide-laden mushrooms, errant fireworks, tainted toothpaste...

WASHINGTON -- China, a traditional source of cheap goods, has become an alarmingly top exporter of tainted and dangerous products to the United States, triggering concerns among consumers and regulators. Reports of tainted pet foods, dangerous toys, fake drugs, toxin-coated monkfish and cosmetics, drug-laced frozen eel, illicit pesticide-laden mushrooms and other products have led to recalls and bans and potentially more stringent import and food safety laws. Thousands of cats and dogs died recently after eating food made from wheat gluten spiked with melamine, a chemical used in fertilizers, prompting one of the largest pet-food recalls in US history. Made-in-China...

<p>FDA tests found antifreeze chemical; agency unsure if items are counterfeit.</p> <p>Five-ounce tubes of toothpaste labeled Colgate and sold in discount stores in four states are being recalled because they may contain a poisonous chemical, according to the importer. A Food and Drug Administration official, Doug Arbesfeld, confirmed that testing had found the chemical in a product with the Colgate label. But he said the agency is unsure if it is really Colgate or a counterfeit.</p>

...FDA inspectors report tainted food imports intended for American humans are being rejected with increasing frequency because they are filthy, are contaminated with pesticides and tainted with carcinogens, bacteria and banned drugs. ..257 refusals of Chinese products were recorded in April... Refused by the FDA in April because they were "filthy": * salted bean curd cubes in brine with chili and sesame oil * dried apple * dried peach * dried pear * dried round bean curd * dried mushroom * olives * frozen bay scallops * frozen Pacific cod * sardines * frozen seafood mix * fermented bean curd...

Tainted Chinese Imports Common In Four Months, FDA Refused 298 Shipments By Rick Weiss Washington Post Staff Writer May 20, 2007 Dried apples preserved with a cancer-causing chemical. Frozen catfish laden with banned antibiotics. Scallops and sardines coated with putrefying bacteria. Mushrooms laced with illegal pesticides. These were among the 107 food imports from China that the Food and Drug Administration detained at U.S. ports just last month, agency documents reveal, along with more than 1,000 shipments of tainted Chinese dietary supplements, toxic Chinese cosmetics and counterfeit Chinese medicines. For years, U.S. inspection records show, China has flooded the United...

WASHINGTON - Dried apples preserved with a cancer-causing chemical. Frozen catfish laden with banned antibiotics. Scallops and sardines coated with putrefying bacteria. Mushrooms laced with illegal pesticides. These were among the 107 food imports from China the Food and Drug Administration detained at U.S. ports just last month, agency documents reveal, along with more than 1,000 shipments of tainted Chinese dietary supplements, toxic Chinese cosmetics and counterfeit Chinese medicines. For years, U.S. inspection records show, China has flooded the United States with foods unfit for human consumption. And for years, FDA inspectors have simply returned to Chinese importers the small...

“Now the European and US clients are checking every batch of products coming from China ... The GMO test is one. Now you add tests for melamine or other heavy metals or pesticides, the costs are very high, too high,” Ng said.

......He's been recruiting beekeepers to harvest on the grounds, and all he asks is that they follow a few simple health rules. First, no using antibiotics in their colonies; the drugs can make people sick. Second, no storing honey in metal containers; those can taint the sweet goo with toxic iron and lead. Some 45 keepers have signed up. But many others are hostile to his efforts, which they see as a threat to their decades-old way of doing business on the cheap -- and making easy profits. ......Honey and thousands of other Chinese food products are showing up more...

The same food safety net that could not catch poisoned pet food ingredients from China has a much bigger hole. Billions of dollars worth of foreign ingredients that Americans eat in everything from salad dressing to ice cream get a pass from overwhelmed inspectors, despite a rising tide of imports from countries with spotty records, according to an Associated Press analysis of federal trade and food data. -snip- Over the past five years, the AP found, U.S. food makers prospecting for bargains more than doubled their business with low-cost countries such as Mexico, China and India. Those nations also have...