Is China trying to poison Americans and their pets?

While Americans are recovering from a scandal over poison pet foods imported from China, FDA inspectors report tainted food imports intended for American humans are being rejected with increasing frequency, as they are filthy, are contaminated with pesticides and tainted with carcinogens, bacteria and banned drugs.

Refused by the FDA in April because they were “filthy”.
salted bean curd cubes in brine with chili & 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
frozen eel
ginseng
frozen red raspberry crumble
mushrooms

Toothbrushes were rejected last month because they were improperly labeled. And last week the FDA found toothpaste contaminated with a chemical used in antifreeze, the same chemical that killed people in Panama when it turned up in cough syrup. (Diethylene glycol)

Check out this interesting food industry publication. Several instances of bad Chinese food products. One example

FDA posts melamine safety/risk assessment

5/25/2007-The U.S. FDA has posted an interim melamine and analogues safety/risk assessment that describes the risk to human health associated with eating pork, chicken, fish and eggs from animals that had been inadvertently fed animal feed that may have been adulterated with melamine and its analogues.

FDA developed the safety/risk assessment in response to their ongoing investigation of contaminated vegetable protein products imported from China that were mislabeled as “wheat gluten” and “rice protein concentrate.” Based on currently available data and information, the results of the safety/risk assessment indicate that the consumption of pork, chicken, domestic fish, and eggs from animals inadvertently fed animal feed contaminated with melamine and its analogues is very unlikely to pose a human health risk.

So in your experience, fruits and vegetables from any South American country are safe? Would you say that it is mainly China, India, and Mexico that are questionable?

I read this in a 2002 World Health Organization document:

“Mexico, as other countries, has not had an integrated program to achieve food safety, which have resulted in some unattended sectors such as the agricultural production, where systems to reduce microbiological, chemical, and physical risk had not been implemented.”

I read this in an Associated Press article dated April 23, 2007:

“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 the most shipments fail the limited number of checks the FDA makes.

* * *

By its own latest accounting, the FDA only had enough inspectors to check about 1 percent of the 8.9 million imported food shipments in fiscal year 2006. Topping the list were products with past problems, such as seafood and produce.

* * *

That leaves quality control, by and large, to American buyers and their suppliers. If they don’t do it, they run the risk of health problems that can devastate a brand and generate huge lawsuits.

But except in rare cases, companies don’t have to prove that a shipment of ingredients is safe — no tests must show that it’s pesticide-free, for example — and the FDA rarely checks whether overseas processing conditions are up to par. That contrasts with meat imports regulated by the Department of Agriculture, which must be processed under conditions equivalent to those here.”

from http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2007/04/23/national/a043804D26.DTL

This is sobering.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.