Posted on 04/28/2007 4:44:09 PM PDT by Flavius
SOMETHING was wrong with the babies. The villagers noticed their heads were growing abnormally large while the rest of their bodies were skin and bones. By the time Chinese authorities discovered the culprit — severe malnutrition from fake milk powder — 13 had died.
The scandal, which unfolded three years ago after hundreds of babies fell ill in an eastern Chinese province, became the defining symbol of a broad problem in China's economy. Quality control and product-safety regulation are so poor that people cannot trust the goods on sale.
Until now, the problem has not received much attention outside China but in recent weeks consumers everywhere have been learning about China's safety crisis. Tainted ingredients that originated here made their way into pet food that has killed animals around the world.
Chinese authorities acknowledge the safety problem and have promised repeatedly to fix it, but the disasters keep coming.
Tang Yanli, 45, grand-aunt of a baby who became sick because of the fake milk but eventually recovered, said that even though she now pays more to buy national brands, she remains suspicious. "I don't trust the food I eat," she said.
With China playing an ever-larger role in supplying food and medicine to other countries, recognition of the hazards has not kept up.
By value, China is the world's main exporter of fruit and vegetables, and a major exporter of other food, ranging from apple juice to garlic to sausage casings. But it has been especially poor at meeting international standards.
The US subjects only a small fraction of its food imports to close inspection, but each month rejects about 200 shipments from China, mostly because of concerns about pesticides, antibiotics and misleading labelling. In February, inspectors blocked peas tainted by pesticides, dried plums containing banned additives, pepper contaminated with salmonella and crayfish that were filthy.
Since 2000, some countries have temporarily banned whole categories of Chinese imports. The European Union stopped shipments of shrimp because of banned antibiotics. Japan blocked tea and spinach, citing excessive antibiotic residue. And South Korea banned fermented cabbage after finding parasites.
As globalisation of the food supply progresses, "the food gets more anonymous and gradually you get into a situation where you don't know where exactly it came from and you get more vulnerable to poor quality," said Michiel Keyzer, director of the Centre for World Food Studies at Vrije University in Amsterdam, who researches China's exports to the European Union.
Chinese authorities, while conceding the country has many safety problems, say other countries' assessments of products are sometimes "not accurate" and have implied the bans may be politically motivated, aimed at protecting domestic companies.
Yet the Government has found that companies have cut corners in virtually every aspect of food production and packaging, including improper use of fertiliser, unsanitary packing and poor refrigeration of dairy products.
William O'Brien, president of Hami Food of Beijing, which transports food for the McDonald's restaurant chain and other multinational companies in China, said in some of his competitors' operations, "chilled and frozen products very often come in taxicabs or in vans … That is something that people should worry about."
Not surprisingly, food-related poisonings are common.
Last year, farmers providing duck eggs were found to have used a red dye so the yolks would look reddish instead of yellow, fetching a higher price. The dye turned out to be a cancer-causing substance. In Shanghai, 300 people were poisoned by a chemical additive in pork.
The Government has undertaken a major overhaul of its monitoring system, sending state inspectors to every province, launching spot inspections at supermarkets, and firing a number of corrupt officials.
ping
globalization the gift that keeps on giving...
Trust your enemies to feed you, build your machines, and finance your lifestyle at your own peril.
bttt
South Korea bannd fermented cabbage? How bad does it have to be....?
When I lived in South Korea, the idea was you took cabbage, red pepper, and vinegar, put it in a clay pot, and buried it in the backyard. Kimchee. Yum.
So...how bad does it have to be, that they ban it?
how abut laced with pesticides heavy metals ,industrial runoff
that would be bad, yes.
it is just the idea that kimchee could get worse...lol
(Actually, I love kimchee) (Bad childhood)
“The US subjects only a small fraction of its food imports to close inspection, but each month rejects about 200 shipments from China, mostly because of concerns about pesticides, antibiotics and misleading labelling. In February, inspectors blocked peas tainted by pesticides, dried plums containing banned additives, pepper contaminated with salmonella and crayfish that were filthy.”
YIKES.
You wonder how any self-respecting parasite could survive in there. LOL!
You forgot the main ingredient: fish entrails
My X was stationed in Korea for one year in 1968 as a crew chief in a helicopter unit, and he used to say you could smell the kimchee at 1300 ft.
Yes, I did wonder - wouldn’t it get pickled?
On the other hand, unpasturized kimchee is one of the two foods that can protect one from bird flu - the other being unpasturized sauerkraut.
Fortunately, I like both.
LOL. In Rome, the highest-value food commodity was a concoction made out of fish guts.
We still eat it today, we call it soy sauce.
This is a country that could care less if a billion died and we get our vitamins from them?
Entirely sound points. And, I would add, ignore history at your peril. This is a culture of expansion and empire, exclusivist, and viewing foreigners as objects rather than neighbours.
I say that on some thread - but darn if it made sense. Human hair and fish guts have the same protiens?
Maybe, I dunno.
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