Posted on 10/23/2005 6:58:48 AM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
Friday October 21, 06:34 PM
S.Korean Watchdog Orders Destruction Of Tainted Chinese Kimchi
SEOUL, Oct 21 Asia Pulse - South Korea's food safety watchdog ordered the recall and destruction of nine Chinese kimchi products on Friday after detecting parasite eggs in them.
The Korea Food and Drug Administration (KFDA) said the Chinese imports were found to contain the eggs of three parasites -- roundworm, hookworm and trichostrongylus orientalis.
But domestic kimchi brands were found not to contain parasite eggs, the watchdog said, announcing the outcome of a test of 16 kimchi products from China and 18 domestic brands that were sold over the Internet.
"We ordered marketers to recall all contaminated Chinese kimchi already sold," the watchdog said. "The remaining products were also ordered to be destroyed."
It was the first time for the KFDA to conduct a parasite test on kimchi imported from China. Kimchi is a traditional side dish of spicy fermented vegetables consumed with almost every meal in South Korea.
The KFDA said the parasite eggs might have come from human excrements, a fertilizer that many Chinese farmers use to grow vegetables.
"We have to take additional tests to determine the exact cause of the contamination," said Lee Chang-jun, head of the KFDA's food safety team.
Kimchi imported from China has sparked a safety scare here since an opposition lawmaker claimed late last month that it was found to contain significantly high levels of lead.
The KFDA said later Chinese kimchi contains lead below the permissible level and that it is safe for consumption.
According to government statistics, South Korea imported nearly 50,000 tons of kimchi during the first half of this year, almost all of which came from China.
The public outrage initially directed at Chinese Kimchi is now being restaurant operators who stock up Chinese Kimchi and try to pass them as domestic one. Moreover, the Chinese regime requested S. Korean government to restrain the coverage on Chinese Kimchi. Basically, they want S. Korea to pull the same routine they pulled on the coverage on avian flu. They have a lot of nerve to demand the press control of another country.
Ping!
I thought human waste fertilizer was SOP in Asia.
I have often wondered (how much food stuff do we import from China?) how hard it would be for China to begin a secret attempt to literally poison Americans through all the goods we import from them.
Just put trace amounts of poisons/biological agents in packaging/embeded in the plastic/etc. Eventually have a generation of children with brain damage - not necessarily life-threatening, but just enough to cause a major problem for our country....
Or am I just needing to get fold me up a tin-foil hat?
Not everybody does it these days.
It is. They call it "night soil."
Apparently that was already done.
The results are called "Democrats."
Never heard of the stuff links...
http://www.marimari.com/content/korea/best_of/kimchi/kimchi.html
http://www.sogang.ac.kr/~burns/cult96/s950118.html
Having once sampled some kimchi, I was going to ask, How did they know something was wrong with it?
But parasites are a serious business.
Well, the way pollution and sanitary problem are in China, they are breeding low-grade biological and chemical agents even without a sinister design. They could easily hitch on export goods and travelers to reach American soil.
They are the equal opportunity killers of both people inside China and outside China. It is quite possible that Chinese population explosion is finally rectified by these agents that are multiplying on their land due to their negligence and incompetence.
They were called honey buckets when we lived in Japan. SK was no different in the 1950s-early 1960s.
They do have to import rice already.
How did they know something was wrong with it?
It took me about 8 months to like kimchi in Korea. It's still not my favorite, though I really like kimchi soup.
Oh yuck! What's wrong with these restaurant owners? Aren't they afraid of getting sick? Is there any way to pastuerize this stuff?
I wonder if irradiation could be used?
I imagine parasite eggs would be considered a delicacy up north.
Abstract
Effects of gamma irradiation on nutritional, physiological, physicochemical and sensory properties of the Korean lactic acid fermented vegetable, Kimchi, were investigated. The composition of amino acids and organic acids in Kimchi were not influenced by gamma irradiation less than 10kGy. Angiotensine converting enzyme inhibitory, xanthin oxidase inhibitory, electron donating and antimicrobial activity of Kimchi extract were stable up to 10kGy. There were no significant changes in pH and texture at less than 10kGy. Color values were influenced at 10kGy of gamma irradiation, and resulted in the increase of L*- and reduction of a*-value. About 90% of panelists identified a sensory difference between non-irradiated and 10kGy-irradiated sample, and Kimchi irradiated at 10kGy had lower scores in acceptability than those of the control or irradiated at 2.5 and 5kGy.
Wow! So does this mean that irradiated kimchi doesn't pass the taste test? Good find...
Tainted mainland Chinese food products are a regular feature on the evening news here on the island.
Just about everything imaginable, to some really weird things like fake "Tea Eggs" come in from the mainland.
Red China seems to have little control over its food saftey - both domestic & import.
Unfortunately Taiwan plays only a catch-up game in this area. A lot of bad stuff gets on the shelf for consumers.
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