Posted on 04/28/2007 4:44:09 PM PDT by Flavius
SOMETHING was wrong with the babies. The villagers noticed their heads were growing abnormally large while the rest of their bodies were skin and bones. By the time Chinese authorities discovered the culprit — severe malnutrition from fake milk powder — 13 had died.
The scandal, which unfolded three years ago after hundreds of babies fell ill in an eastern Chinese province, became the defining symbol of a broad problem in China's economy. Quality control and product-safety regulation are so poor that people cannot trust the goods on sale.
Until now, the problem has not received much attention outside China but in recent weeks consumers everywhere have been learning about China's safety crisis. Tainted ingredients that originated here made their way into pet food that has killed animals around the world.
Chinese authorities acknowledge the safety problem and have promised repeatedly to fix it, but the disasters keep coming.
Tang Yanli, 45, grand-aunt of a baby who became sick because of the fake milk but eventually recovered, said that even though she now pays more to buy national brands, she remains suspicious. "I don't trust the food I eat," she said.
With China playing an ever-larger role in supplying food and medicine to other countries, recognition of the hazards has not kept up.
By value, China is the world's main exporter of fruit and vegetables, and a major exporter of other food, ranging from apple juice to garlic to sausage casings. But it 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 because of concerns about pesticides, antibiotics and misleading labelling. In February, inspectors blocked peas tainted by pesticides, dried plums containing banned additives, pepper contaminated with salmonella and crayfish that were filthy.
Since 2000, some countries have temporarily banned whole categories of Chinese imports. The European Union stopped shipments of shrimp because of banned antibiotics. Japan blocked tea and spinach, citing excessive antibiotic residue. And South Korea banned fermented cabbage after finding parasites.
As globalisation of the food supply progresses, "the food gets more anonymous and gradually you get into a situation where you don't know where exactly it came from and you get more vulnerable to poor quality," said Michiel Keyzer, director of the Centre for World Food Studies at Vrije University in Amsterdam, who researches China's exports to the European Union.
Chinese authorities, while conceding the country has many safety problems, say other countries' assessments of products are sometimes "not accurate" and have implied the bans may be politically motivated, aimed at protecting domestic companies.
Yet the Government has found that companies have cut corners in virtually every aspect of food production and packaging, including improper use of fertiliser, unsanitary packing and poor refrigeration of dairy products.
William O'Brien, president of Hami Food of Beijing, which transports food for the McDonald's restaurant chain and other multinational companies in China, said in some of his competitors' operations, "chilled and frozen products very often come in taxicabs or in vans … That is something that people should worry about."
Not surprisingly, food-related poisonings are common.
Last year, farmers providing duck eggs were found to have used a red dye so the yolks would look reddish instead of yellow, fetching a higher price. The dye turned out to be a cancer-causing substance. In Shanghai, 300 people were poisoned by a chemical additive in pork.
The Government has undertaken a major overhaul of its monitoring system, sending state inspectors to every province, launching spot inspections at supermarkets, and firing a number of corrupt officials.
ping
globalization the gift that keeps on giving...
Trust your enemies to feed you, build your machines, and finance your lifestyle at your own peril.
bttt
South Korea bannd fermented cabbage? How bad does it have to be....?
When I lived in South Korea, the idea was you took cabbage, red pepper, and vinegar, put it in a clay pot, and buried it in the backyard. Kimchee. Yum.
So...how bad does it have to be, that they ban it?
how abut laced with pesticides heavy metals ,industrial runoff
that would be bad, yes.
it is just the idea that kimchee could get worse...lol
(Actually, I love kimchee) (Bad childhood)
“The US subjects only a small fraction of its food imports to close inspection, but each month rejects about 200 shipments from China, mostly because of concerns about pesticides, antibiotics and misleading labelling. In February, inspectors blocked peas tainted by pesticides, dried plums containing banned additives, pepper contaminated with salmonella and crayfish that were filthy.”
YIKES.
You wonder how any self-respecting parasite could survive in there. LOL!
You forgot the main ingredient: fish entrails
My X was stationed in Korea for one year in 1968 as a crew chief in a helicopter unit, and he used to say you could smell the kimchee at 1300 ft.
Yes, I did wonder - wouldn’t it get pickled?
On the other hand, unpasturized kimchee is one of the two foods that can protect one from bird flu - the other being unpasturized sauerkraut.
Fortunately, I like both.
LOL. In Rome, the highest-value food commodity was a concoction made out of fish guts.
We still eat it today, we call it soy sauce.
This is a country that could care less if a billion died and we get our vitamins from them?
Entirely sound points. And, I would add, ignore history at your peril. This is a culture of expansion and empire, exclusivist, and viewing foreigners as objects rather than neighbours.
I say that on some thread - but darn if it made sense. Human hair and fish guts have the same protiens?
Maybe, I dunno.
Frightening!
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1684105/posts
Unfortunately it included more than just hair. (Hint) Does your soy sauce ever leave you with that “not so fresh” feeling?
Kimchee is impervious to pesticides, heavy metals, and industrial runoff, but these additives might enhance its flavor.
LOL
So much for dinner...man, that is nasty.
I cannot imagine choosing food imported from China, given all that's already well-known about their environmental atrocities and degradation. The whole country is a superfund dump, as far as I can discern, their falsefront economy and empty rows of skyscrapers notwithstanding. I bet all those finely honed Olympic athletes are just thrilled to read about what the local talent will be preparing for them in Peking next year.
This cannot be, I have been time and again that socialist-commie governments take care of everything and everyone.
"Kimchee" is more accurately a description of food preparation rather than one particular food stuff. Similar to the American use of "pickle" which most people use when they mean "dill pickle" but there are any number of picked foods.
So some kimchee is cabbage-based, others use radish, etc. The real potent one that my wife will sometimes get is a radish-oyster kimchee. Whoowee, does that wake your nose up!
Now don’t you want to just run out and spend thousands of bucks on air fare and tickets for the Beijing Olympics? You would have to be insane...
best steak marinade ever ;)
Fake milk powder. How ingenious. That’s another way to deal with a growing population.
then have someone expose how much of a bonus these bastards got for buying tainted goods for our food supply...
This is a country that could care less if a billion died and we get our vitamins from them?
as a guy who sells vitamins, I have been on this like white on rice. The American vitamin and supplement industry can be roughly divided into three groups: 1)Those who test everything and carefully, 2) Those who tend to have lower standards but still do a lot of testing or else trust their suppliers, and 3) Those who can’t afford to and just trust their suppliers.
The Solgars, Twinlabs, Country Lifes, and Nature’s Plus’s of the world are in group 1, as well as the larger private label labs. Nature’s Plus puts a little piece of paper in many, if not all, bottles that has the test data results from an analytical lab for the ingredients in that lot of product. NOW also does a lot of testing.
Most of the mid-tier suppliers will tend source out testing and the really small local suppliers show little inclination
to do their own testing.
OK, my little garden patch is getting an expansion this year.
Fortunately I live in an agricultural area where I can get homegrown strawberries, corn, peas, and other veggies I don’t grow myself.
That's good to know. I use exclusively TwinLabs because they're easy to swallow and digest because they're capsules.
This thread is scary. Necessary and scary.
And just like for outsourcing our manufacturing and our engineering jobs, nothing will change. ... And the band played on. ... And the Sheeple will sleep.
Thanks for the ping.
.
How was your march?
BUMP!
Oh gag.....
“Holy Projectile Vomiting Batman!!!”
I won’t eat food from China....all that fish they sell over here, nope.
China is a big exporter of "Organic" food. It's not enough that food is labeled organic, it must be locally grown.
Well it was about 100 degrees here for it, only about 20 people showed up.
But we did get good news coverage.
I have seen myself on the news here, about 6 times asking for better pet food and human food regulations. Not long segments but at least getting the word out about the food inspections.
I did say on camera that, if my pet died and so did my son’s dog a week later, then there are only 14 other pets nationwide that have died, told them it was ridiculous.
Something is being hidden and has to be investigated.
I also said on camera that I wasn’t there just for my dog, as nothing can be done for him now, but I was there to speak out for my family and grandchildren and everyones family as this has hit the human food chain, big time.
(Hate when I look fatter on tv, lol.)
I did send off postcards of my dog to Senators in Washington, as did others with the March and hopefully it will make an impact on those no good bums there.
Someone at the March had a on line pet petition to sign, here is the url.
Check it out everyone.
It looks like few people are really getting involved right now, but,
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” — Margaret Mead
There is a big article on the front page of our newspaper this morning called FOOD CRISIS WIDENS, but I cannot find the link.
The paper is the Las Vegas Review Journal, if anyone can find it and post it, that would be good.
“China is a big exporter of “Organic” food. It’s not enough that food is labeled organic, it must be locally grown.”
Food that can show the local linkage will get a huge boost is what I really mean’t to say....
The local angle should be more important than the organic factor.
Yes organic can be a scam in many cases....
I don't think regulation is the answer. We need very heavy penalties for those who do not test their ingredients/products purchased. Ignorance is no plea when it comes to our food supply. The fine needs to be so high the incentive is to police themselves if they want to sell their products in or to the U.S.
Industry here in the US is heavily weighed down by regulation by agencies like the FDA. It stifles US competitiveness and costs jobs. The way they shake down US companies and then give the Chinese a pass just boils me
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