Why U.S. doesn't stop tainted food from China

san jose mercury ^ | 5/20/07 | by Rick Weiss

[Flavius]

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 portion of those products they caught - many of which turned up at U.S. borders again, making a second or third attempt at entry.

[Arrowhead1952]

See this FR thread as well. It's not just pet food anymore.

Poisoned Toothpaste Possibly from China
THE REGISTER GUARD ^ | Saturday, May 19, 2007 | By Walt Bogdanich and Renwick McLean

[WildcatClan]

I agree, but how is one to know? You can’t protect yourself and your family with suspicion. We have a right to know what we are buying, food or otherwise. The congress critters need to understand we aren’t going to stand for this absurdity. It angers me to no end when I check a label or product, and see; Origin: USA or Imported. Well, duh, I didn’t think it came from Fairyland, thanks for the 411, Captain Obvious.

[snowsislander]

Don’t buy any food products one suspects comes from China or the Far East in general.

As long as I reasonably sure that a food product is actually from Japan (the Chinese apparently also fake those, so it pays to be careful), I am willing to buy it.

(I have to say with natto, though, it is kind of hard to distinguish its normal state from that of advanced decay. ;-)

[MarkL]

One day Tammy Bruce was subbing for Laura Ingrahm on her radio show, and a guy called in stating that he didn't like the way Chinese did business, since they were a fascist (economic) state, where the ONLY thing that mattered to the company, i.e. the country, was profit. More profit meant more power for the country. That's all that mattered. He then went on to say that he was an importer, and that while he didn't like it, he had no choice but to deal with the Chinese. At that point, Tammy just ripped into this guy, stating flat out that by dealing with the Chinese, he was no better than they, and that he was helping them in their goals.

She was right. There's NO reason that any American company should have to import this sort of thing, especially into our food supply! There are reports coming in from all over the world about people dying due to the use of Chinese glycerin in medicines that turned out to by ethylene glycol. And we all know about the contaminated wheat gluten that wound up in pet food, as well as food for animals in OUR food supply! It's sheer greed, but more importantly, it's greed AT THE EXPENSE of human decency. At what point do we say, "you know, I'm going to spend an extra $10 on this product, because they don't use slave labor." Or "I don't think that I want those imported vegetables, because they fertilize them with human waste, and that's just not a good thing."

We are fully capable of supplying ourselves with what we want and need, all we need is the will to do so. Or at least we were, until we began moving much of our manufacturing capabilities offshore. And I don't believe the people who say that the only important thing is the price: If people were told what's been going on, they'd demand change. I had no idea about this stuff until peoples' pets started dying, and then, all of a sudden, it was an issue? I'd be willing to bet that if anyone were informed that the Chinese were using an industrial chemical to fool testers into thinking that they were getting more protein then they actually were, and by the way, that chemicle is toxic, there would have been decisions to use a different supplier.

Mark

[Flavius]

i think you should get all the products from china

we;ll try other stuff

and i hope you enjoy it

i understand about the $$ ‘ied

[sam_paine]

It is clear from that article that it is impossible without a comprehensive ban on all food products from China to protect our families.

Well CANCEL THE HEARINGS, Charlotte!!! Ding Ding ding! We have necessary and sufficient evidence from a few paragraphs of this authoritative author that, by golly, that's all we need to 'know.'

Thus we can formulate policy for an international embargo against China and raise prices in America based on this short article. We already see how much Americans understand and accept high commodity oil prices, so we should have $15/lb chicken prices for Bo Pilgrim and other Big Chicken, Cos.

Close the ports and send the stevedores home, honey! We got this problem licked!

[Flavius]

i like your plan

[James W. Fannin]

From the Cox report to dumping and slave labor, nothing will stop the free trader’s plunge into the Heart of Darkness.

[WildcatClan]

Only girly-men are worried about being poisoned. So what, 107 detained food imports from China last month, and that’s what they caught. No more complaints from me, I am going to take my Commie poison like a man from this day forward. Yeah, right, and CAIR will have a pig roast, and Sam will get a clue.

[snowsislander]

Well CANCEL THE HEARINGS, Charlotte!!! Ding Ding ding! We have necessary and sufficient evidence from a few paragraphs of this authoritative author that, by golly, that's all we need to 'know.'

Well, I would say that a few thousand dead pets might have convinced a few folks.

However, please, if you would like advocate eating as much cheap swill from China as you and your family can consume, please feel free to do so. Ours is a free country, unlike the PRC.

I will myself advocate that we cease all trade with Red China. I myself think it makes no sense to make a totalitarian nation richer, and I think it foolish for us to consume their food products.

[Suzy Quzy]

Think Globally...Eat LOCALLY!

[sam_paine]

i think you should get all the products from china

I don't want most of the products of China. But I do like the fact that the industrial export stuff they build over there leaves all of the environmental damage in Red China, not in the American Rust Belt.

It's not a complete lose-lose proposition.

As for food, I think it is MUCH more dangerous to eat the work product of a high-school kid at Applebee's cooking American pork/poultry/unwashed veggies than it is to prepare a meal at home with Chinese food products.

But anyway, I figure I'm going to die someday, so I don't get overly worked up about malachite green in eels.

[snippy_about_it]

The problem here is that American food suppliers buy from China so you may not know where your food ingredients are coming from. How many of us knew our dog and cat food had ingredients sent from China?

Unless we make the US companies print that some of their product ingredient is imported, we will never know.

[mom4kittys]

[anonsquared]

And how many Americans will run down to their local Wal-Mart to buy their MADE IN CHINA American flag for the Fourth of July?

[freeangel]

I hope china gags and dies on it’s own stupidity.

[grey_whiskers]

Think Globally...Eat LOCALLY!

I humbly bow before your superior wit!

Cheers!

[Flavius]

i’m not sure

but i can tell you with 100% certainty they will not eat it

[sam_paine]

We have a right to know what we are buying, food or otherwise.

And who granted you that 'right?'

I get so sick of seeing people throw that word around.

The second amendment RIGHT to bear arms was a pre-existing natural condition for self-defense granted BY GOD.

There is no 'right' to know anything about what you put in your mouth beyond what you can discern for yourself. You wanna know what's in it? GROW IT YOU LAZY FOOL.

If you don't want to grow it, make friends with someone at your farmer's market. Too lazy for that? Make a contact at your local grocer? Too lazy for that? Petition your government to extort money from my paycheck to hire inspectors that neither you nor I know to put a label on certain foodstuffs because of spot/periodic/sampled inspections based on standards neither you nor I have agreed upon.......AH YES! Now you've got your 'right.'

This country is full of socialist pigs.