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Posted on 12/31/2007 12:29:26 PM PST by JACKRUSSELL
North Carolina isn't waiting for the next time imported products sicken a child or kill a cat.
In a push to find problems before they harm consumers, inspectors with the N.C. Department of Agriculture have been routinely monitoring imported candy, seafood, dry spices and nearly a dozen other imported and domestically produced products on grocery shelves.
The program, started in 2005, is one reason North Carolina was recently asked to join four other states in helping the U.S. Food and Drug Administration develop a better system for ensuring the safety of the nation's food supply. State and local agencies conduct about 80 percent of food safety inspections nationally, but the frequency and quality of such checks vary greatly from state to state.
The safety of food and other products shipped into this country is on American consumers' minds more than ever.
This year alone, hundreds of cats and dogs died or became sick after eating pet food made with tainted imported additives. Imported toothpaste was pulled from shelves because it contained a toxic compound used to thicken antifreeze. And a children's toy, AquaDots, was yanked from the market after it was found to contain residue that breaks down into a "date rape" drug.
All three cases involved products from China.
For many, the scares turned the safety of imported goods -- especially products for human consumption -- into a priority.
But North Carolina and federal regulators, as well as industry and consumer groups, have been concerned for years about this county's growing reliance on imports and the inherent risks that go with them.
Undercover shoppers
In North Carolina, food safety officers do weekly "secret shops" to buy items on the watch list, visiting the largest chain grocery stores and the smallest Hispanic tiendas. Products are sent to the Department of Agriculture's food safety laboratory in Raleigh, where they are tested for bacteria, pesticides and other potentially harmful contaminants.
"We want consumers, when they visit stores, to have confidence that the products they are purchasing are safe," said Joe Reardon, director of the state agriculture department's food and drug safety division. "If we wait until the consumer reports a problem, we have missed an opportunity to recall the product before there is a public health consequence."
Most products check out. But since starting its surveillance program in 2005, the state has found staphylococcus, E.coli and salmonella bacteria in soft cheeses, undeclared allergens in imported raisins and illegal antibiotics in foreign-raised fish. In each case, the state's tests led to recalls.
About 15 percent of the nation's food is imported. Certain foods, such as seafood, come mostly from foreign sources.
And the amount is growing.
Just over 84 percent of fish and shellfish consumed in the United States in 2005 was imported, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. That's up from about 57 percent in 1980. Fruit and vegetable imports more than tripled during the same period. About 23 percent of fruits and nearly half of vegetables eaten in the United States were imports in 2005.
Many countries shipping into the United States do not meet American standards for sanitation and food safety. Yet only about 1 percent of imported goods are tested for possible contamination, the FDA says.
Comparable data are not available for North Carolina, but experts say the state's food supply probably mirrors national trends.
"The world is feeding us today," said Reardon, the state food and drug safety division chief. "I'm not suggesting all these products are bad. But it's our responsibility to ensure that the products coming into our state are safe and sound."
Sean McKeon, president of the N.C. Fisheries Association, which represents the state's fishing industry, is more blunt. He describes the United States' poor oversight of imports as "a time bomb waiting to go off."
He said it is a matter of time before imported seafood causes a serious problem. Shipments of seafood rejected in Europe or Japan, where imports are more rigorously tested, are routinely brought to the United States.
"You have a perverse incentive to ship contaminated seafood to the U.S., where there is only a 1 percent chance it's going to be inspected," McKeon said.
His group believes the way to change that is for the United States to establish import laws that require foreign producers to meet the same food safety standards as American producers.
U.S. Rep. Walter Jones, a Republican from Farmville, has introduced a bill that would set such standards. And the federal government is working with China, a frequent source of problems, to improve quality and safety of imported goods.
Up to states
But until those efforts reduce the tide of largely unregulated imports coming into this country, it is up to individual states to look out for their residents.
North Carolina started thinking more strategically about food safety after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Reardon said. It occurred to regulators that terrorists could use the food supply to sicken the population or wreak economic havoc.
Since then, the state has built a more coordinated "food defense" system that can mobilize in the event of an emergency.
The state activated its system this year after an outbreak of botulism triggered a national recall of canned chili and beef stew manufactured by Castleberry Food Co. Within hours of learning about the recall in August, state officials were in the field recovering affected foods.
Reardon said the effort recovered about 35,000 cans of food, including products that would have been served to children in day cares and schools or packed for Boy Scout camping trips. North Carolina collected more cans than the FDA recovered in all other 49 states, Reardon said.
The food surveillance program attempts to stay one step ahead of such problems by finding contaminated foods before they make anyone sick.
The program targets many imported products for testing, such as imported shrimp and fish, and dry spices, which can carry salmonella. It also samples domestically produced foods that are prone to problems, such as packaged salads and sandwiches.
This summer, routine surveillance detected trace amounts of the antibiotic enrofloxacin in frozen silver barb fish imported from Vietnam. Such antibiotics are used to prevent sickness among fish in Asian hatcheries. But they are illegal in the United States, where health experts fear long-term exposure could cause antibiotic resistance.
North Carolina's tests of the fish, purchased at an Asian grocery in Western North Carolina, led to a voluntary recall by the product's distributor.
Last year, testing discovered the bacteria Listeria monocytogenes in tubs of cole slaw, egg salad and macaroni salad in Mount Airy and Hickory.
Listeria can cause stillbirth in pregnant women and mild to serious illness in others. The tests caused the salads' West Virginia manufacturer to recall products from 18 states. North Carolina had no reports of illness associated with the recalled products.
Still, no one thinks surveillance can completely shield consumers from unsafe imports.
"There's no way we can test all products," said David Green, an associate professor of food safety at N.C. State University.
That means some bad products aren't detected in time. Earlier this month, three North Carolina women suffered stillbirths after eating foods contaminated with listeria. State public health officials said all three women ate soft cheeses -- one of the foods the surveillance program routinely samples.
Still, Reardon considers the surveillance program a success whenever it detects trouble.
"When we find it and remove it from the market, we know we are doing our job," he said.
THANK YOU over-regulation of the fish and shellfish industries in the United States.
There is absolutely NO need for this amount of importation, except for the greed of the well funded recreational fishing industry that works so hard to GUT the domestic commercial fishing industry.
Thanks for this ping, and Happy New Year!
They won't be getting any bootleg tamales if they aren't a regular or don't know the secret password.
Makes me sick........(no pun intended) Why CAN'T ALL the states just DO this?
BUMP
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