Companies Want Source of Additives Made in China

The State - South Carolina ^ | May. 20, 2007 | By Don Lee

[JACKRUSSELL]

Food manufacturers questioning origin of ingredients.

[mom4kittys]

[null and void]

"Companies Want Source of Additives Made in China"

I read that as they want to put the additives in themselves, and cut out the middleman.

It’s been a long week...

[tioga]

‘bout time ping

[Faith65]

I’ve been wondering about wheat cereals like Post shredded wheat and such. I called Post’s 800# yesterday after buying a large box at Costco and all the girl on the line would tell me was that the wheat did not come from China but wouldn’t say who the supplier was much less a country. When I asked if it was wheat from the states she just said she didn’t know.

[Titan Magroyne]

Good. Now if only ALL of them would do so!

I’ve been leery of Tyson for the past few years. I bought a whole Tyson chicken with the intention of making chicken stew. To wrangle the frosty bird into my crockpot, I had to cut it up. It wasn’t long before my cuticles were stinging like I’d dipped my hands into bleach, though I noticed no peculiar odor.

I discarded the mess and returned a second carcass unopened to the store where I’d bought them. The manager gave no argument over refunding the full costs of both except to protest that it came from the processor that way. (This was shortly after the newsmagazine expose` of Food Lion grocery stores repackaging and selling meat of questionable freshness after washing the stuff in bleach/other chemicals.)

[combat_boots]

“China has become the world’s leading supplier of many food flavorings, vitamins and preservatives...”

“available in large quantities only from China.”

“...an increase of 150 percent from just two years earlier, according to Chinese industry estimates. It is now the predominant maker of vanilla flavoring, citric acid and varieties of Vitamin B such as thiamine, riboflavin and folic acid — nutrients commonly added to processed flour goods...”

Food, clothing and shelter.
Basic human needs.
So, if there’s a war, all they have to do is destroy our shelter......or items and energy for same.

[I still care]

I finally read an article that explained WHY they were putting melamine in dog and cat food. (I couldn’t figure it out - why would they do it?)

Here’s the answer - Melamine, while not similar to amino acids, has a lot of Nitrogens in the chemical formula like amino acid proteins. I think the molecule has around 7 nitrogens. When testers analyse the food for amino acids, to determine protein content, the tests we have now do it by determining nitrogen content.

So the food is considered to be high in protein, and instead has a molecule that not only the body can’t use, but is dangerous. It causes problems in kidneys.

The melamine content isn’t really a contaminant problem. It’s a FRAUD problem.

[kittymyrib]

I think we may have just discovered the cause of cancer.
Good grief...what did we eat in the 1950s before China started messing with our food? No wonder our kids have every allergy in the book and are subject to high incidences of autism. It’s no telling what chemicals are in their food from toddlerhood on since the money-grubbing Chinese will mix anything into food additives to make a buck more profit. And of course, the free traitors in the USA wouldn’t like a rigorous inspection system that would have kept the poisonous puffer fish out of CA and IL last week that sickened dozens of diners. It was labeled “monk fish” by those fun-loving Chinese exporters.

[Marysecretary]

I say NO MORE FOOD OR ANYTHING POISONOUS FROM CHINA!

[goldfinch]

Another reason buy fewer processed foods.

[Titan Magroyne]

In other words, our infrastructure.

So much for being the Breadbasket of the World. Good American fields lie fallow or are sold to developers in favor of importing our comestables from a third world Superfund wasteheap.

[Eye of Unk]

It fakes the protein content, in other works it a sham, if you buy food based upon the protein content the tests will show positive if melamine is introduced, in effect less real protein.

China is poisoning us, our animals and our children, they know it and are getting away with murder, I blame a lot of it on the Clintons, Bill had his 8 years and as they planned 15 years ago Hitlery gets 8 years in the Whitehouse, and the saga of sawdust foods from China will continue. If they can wipe out a hundred million of us in 10 years quietly and slowly its all the more room for their illegal immigrants.

BTW the illegal immigrants from south of our border aren’t so dumb to eat chinese afflicted foods, corn and spices being their staple diet is actually quite healthy.

I say just sink the ships with their bogus crap, I have NEVER seen anything of high quality or workmanship from China. And this is a wakeup call to the big box stores like Walmart that rely heavily upon offshore goods they can sell for a high profit margin.

[browardchad]

Here's a little common-sense advice for the food manufacturers: instead of portraying yourselves as hapless victims of Chinese fraud, insist on a paper trail for the ingredients, directly back to the supplier/grower. If you can't get verifiable paperwork, or you don't have a clue about the conditions under which it was produced, or you've never inspected the facility, don't buy it. The final product is yours, and the quality is your responsibility or liability.

The pet poisonings occurred because both the importers and the manufacturers were cutting costs and buying cheap crap that was obviously questionable by any standard (bags of rice protein stencilled "Melamine" might have been a small clue) not because they were innocent victims of fraud.

[sarasmom]

I went to one of my local grocery store managers today and asked if any of the ingredients in their store brand breads or pet foods I had just purchased originated in China.
We jointly determined that instead of querying the website myself, it would be beneficial if she procured the answer for me, and called me with the results.
;^)
I even helped her narrow down my choices to two products.
She was curious herself, as were two young clerks and several hovering customers.
I advise everyone to politely ask their food vendors, all of them, all of the time, where the product ingredients originated.
Here in Florida, Country of Origin is required to be labeled on all fresh produce.
No processed foods or other ingestible products, require COO labels for ingredients.
They are only required to list the final distributors of the finished product. I believe that USA citizens have the absolute "right, and need to know" exactly what is in the food we eat, and where ingredients came from.

[theBuckwheat]

The Left loves to bash the US economic system by looking for the greed in capitalism. But they don’t seem too upset about what is going on in China.

If anything, the present Chinese experience with pet food proves that the Founding Fathers of the US were right: a certain amount of government is necessary to secure the blessings of liberty. Self Internet, when constrained by the law works to everyone’s benefit.

We now see what happens when a region has capitalism without sufficient government. Self interest runs until something checks it, and at the present time, there is not too much constraining of any activity as long as it generates sufficient money with which to grease palms.

[Northern Alliance]

Chinese-made ingredients are likely found in every aisle of American supermarkets. Consider that American favorite, the Hostess Twinkie. Of its 39 ingredients, at least a half-dozen — such as Vitamin B compounds, the preservative sorbic acid and red and yellow colorings — are mostly likely made in China, says Steve Ettlinger, author of the book “Twinkie, Deconstructed.”

Eating junk food like Twinkies is like smoking. If you want to put unnecessary crap into your body because it feels good then be aware that there are probably going to be unpleasant consequences.

[Titan Magroyne]

Good grief...what did we eat in the 1950s before China started messing with our food? No wonder our kids have every allergy in the book and are subject to high incidences of autism. It’s no telling what chemicals are in their food from toddlerhood on since the money-grubbing Chinese will mix anything into food additives to make a buck more profit. And of course, the free traitors in the USA wouldn’t like a rigorous inspection system that would have kept the poisonous puffer fish out of CA and IL last week that sickened dozens of diners. It was labeled “monk fish” by those fun-loving Chinese exporters.
Good points, though I take issue with the notion of only gov't inspectors having responsibility for passing imports into the food chain. It behooves every manufacturer/distributor to test as well. They should when their name is printed on it. Only makes business sense. I think the food industry has been lulled into a false sense of security by the presence of US inspectors.

What bothers me is the "health food" Movement (I can think of no better word for it) creeping into the normal American diet by gov't fiat and pressure applied by vocal special interest groups: New York banning trans-fats from restaurants, movie theaters removing coconut oil from the popcorn poppers, chemically altered glutens and unpronounceable additives meant to replace the taste of natural ingredients - the list goes on. Sure, eating too much of naturally rendered oils and sugars can make you fat, resulting in diseases related to obesity. But that's all they do. What about the accumulative effect of all those chemicals entering the human body over years of consumption?

Look, if I want "health food," I can find it in the store without being offended that it's sitting next to the tasty stuff everyone else wants. I'm not in the least slighted by the fact that (HORRORS!) there exist people who indulge in full-flavored foods. I can cook the healthy stuff in my own kitchen or find it on any restaurant menu. Just stay away from my dayyum Whopper & fries, man!

[VeniVidiVici]

I don’t buy any food anymore unless I can determine, as best as I can, where it came from.

[metmom]

Well, if people ate better, then they wouldn’t NEED to have vitamins added to enrich the “foods”. (as if Twinkies qualifies as food.)