Posted on 07/12/2007 8:06:18 PM PDT by JACKRUSSELL
(Cape Town) - Jobs on pineapple farms and at two canning factories in the Eastern Cape are at risk after a consignment of 100 tons of canned pineapples was discovered to contain the heavy metal cadmium, found in a fertiliser from China.
Allen Duncan, the chairman of the Pineapple Association in East London, which represents 40 farmers, said cadmium was not dangerous to humans in small quantities, but was toxic in larger doses. The cadmium levels found in the exported canned pineapples exceeded the maximum of 0.05 part per million (ppm) deemed permissible by the EU. The US, Australia and Japan allow 0.1 ppm.
Duncan said pineapple producers were instituting legal action against Omnia Chemicals, the largest chemical producer in the country, and its subsidiary, Protea Chemicals. They had sent out a letter of demand. He cited the prejudice rule, which barred him from comment, but said the damages claim would be "substantial".
"They have been totally reckless … They knew about this [contamination] as early as January 2005, when they were sued by Rainbow Chicken for supplying contaminated chicken feed."
Duncan said the fertiliser, zinc sulphate, was the same product that saw Rainbow Chicken institute a damages action of R120 million in the Durban high court.
The industry produced 140 000 tons of pineapples a year, of which 100 000 were canned, with between 70 percent and 80 percent exported. As a result of the contaminated fertiliser, the two factories, Summerpride Foods and Collondale Cannery, could can only 40 000 tons this year, he said.
While the cadmium level in the exported pineapples exceeded the European and Swiss limits, it was still within levels accepted elsewhere in the world and producers would now look for other markets. The pineapples were safe for human consumption, with cadmium levels lower than those of bread (0.2 ppm), cereals (0.1 ppm) and lettuce (0.2 ppm).
Duncan said the department of agriculture should not escape blame because it depended on the Feeds and Fertiliser Act of 1947, which did not lay down any maximum levels for heavy metals. Omnia was "hiding behind this act … There is a lot more they could have done, including removing the fertiliser from the shelves or sending it back to China where it came from."
He was unable to can his pineapples and had 500 factory workers who were not working. While there has not been any retrenchments, a worst-case scenario was that pineapple producers could go out of business and place the jobs of 2 500 people in the rural areas at risk.
Edu Cloete, a joint managing director of Protea Chemicals, said Protea was involved in litigation with Rainbow and therefore could not comment.
they bombed Saddam for less
is this not a chemical atack
Don’t buy ANYTHING from China or anything with ingredients that come from China. Even their fertilizer is contaminated.
If it’s made in China, it’s NOT purchased by me ... no matter what it is.
“While the cadmium level in the exported pineapples exceeded the European and Swiss limits, it was still within levels accepted elsewhere in the world and producers would now look for other markets. The pineapples were safe for human consumption, with cadmium levels lower than those of bread (0.2 ppm), cereals (0.1 ppm) and lettuce (0.2 ppm).”
Watch them land here.
i wish there was a way to know if food was fertilized by chinese products too.
I agree
So do I - even in my deepest paranoia I would have never thought that China exported contaminated fertilizer.
The ramifications of that could be staggering.
WOW...MORE CRAP FROM CHINA...chickens are coming home to roost.
Pieping others
I wish we had labeling identifying countries of origin on everything. But what do you do about what goes into the product? Although I have noticed a lot of produce in the stores now labeled made in USA or grown in USA. I really appreciate that.
Heavy!
We NEED corporate America to care about this, the only way to make that happen is to identify so-called "American" producers who use ChiComm crap, and boycott the living hell out of them.
I do not know pineapples were grown in South Africa.
(Cape Town) - Jobs on pineapple farms and at two canning factories in the Eastern Cape are at risk after a consignment of 100 tons of canned pineapples was discovered to contain the heavy metal cadmium, found in a fertiliser from China.
That can be misleading though. It may say made in the USA, but where did all the ingredients come from?
Exactly :(
Some real deep thinking going on here. Burn our food as fuel so we can import poison.
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