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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.