China exports foods "unfit for human consumption"

may 26th, 2007

why am i not surprised? cacoethes does have a point, that it is not really FUD, the chinese are genuinely good at exporting poison in the form of manufactured food/medicine. there was some stuff about wheat gluten and also about melamine (sp?), a coal derivative used as a protein-like substance.

btw, there will soon be a similar scare, i predict, organized by the pharma companies, about generic drugs from india. it is also a fact that some large %ge of the drugs in india are indeed spurious/dangerous.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: R-Gm

China exports foods "unfit for human consumption"

 

Dear Rajeev

On your blog "chinese pigs are dying" http://rajeev2004.blogspot.com/2007/05/chinese-pigs-are-dying.html , Shahryar posted the following comment:

>>>Does this qualify as FUD?
Excerpt from Food boom brings unpalatable truths:
China's huge food export market could be making the world sick, write Ariana Eunjung Cha in Shanghai and Kelly Burke. … …
China has been especially poor at meeting international standards. The US subjects only a small fraction of its food imports to close inspection, but each month rejects about 200 shipments from China, mostly due to concerns about pesticides, antibiotics and misleading labelling. In February, border inspectors for the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) blocked peas tainted by pesticides, dried plums containing banned additives, pepper contaminated with salmonella and frozen crayfish that were filthy. … … >>>

 

Here is another report, now in Star-Telegram.com (By Washington Post correspondent RICK WEISS):

http://www.star-telegram.com/national_news/story/108570.html
Print: http://www.star-telegram.com/national_news/v-print/story/108570.html
Star-Telegram.com
Posted on Sun, May. 20, 2007

Making China clean up its act
The Food and Drug Administration detained 107 Chinese food imports at U.S. ports last month, agency documents reveal, along with more than 1,000 shipments of tainted Chinese dietary supplements, toxic Chinese cosmetics and counterfeit Chinese medicines. … …

China's less-than-stellar behavior as a food exporter is revealed in stomach-turning detail in FDA "refusal reports" filed by U.S. inspectors, who can check less than 1 percent of regulated imports. A sample of what they reported in April:

Dried apples preserved with a cancer-causing chemical.
Frozen catfish laden with banned antibiotics.
Scallops and sardines coated with putrefying bacteria.
Mushrooms laced with illegal pesticides.
Juices and fruits rejected as "filthy."
Prunes tinted with chemical dyes not approved for human consumption.
Frozen breaded shrimp preserved with nitrofuran, a cancer-causing antibacterial.
Swordfish rejected as "poisonous."

 

I wish our government would sit up and take notice, what with Chinese products flooding our markets and drowning our own – e.g. apples.

I request you to bring this specifically to Shahryar's notice.
Thanks and Regards
T