Posted on 06/09/2007 5:47:17 AM PDT by JACKRUSSELL
BEIJING (AP) - China said Saturday it had rejected a shipment of pistachios from the United States because it contained a potentially harmful variety of ants, the latest indication that the country may be going on the offense as its own products were being turned away over safety fears.
The move came a day after the Chinese food safety watchdog announced that shipments of health supplements and raisins from the U.S. had been returned or destroyed because they did not meet quality control standards.
On Saturday, state television showed inspectors in the southern province of Guangdong rejecting a two-ton shipment of pistachios because they contained what the report called "milky white ants," which looked similar to termites.
China Central Television said the ants could "cause a serious threat to trees and to the ecological environment." Part of the batch, which arrived by ship to the port of Zhongshan, will be destroyed and the rest will be returned, CCTV said, without giving any other details.
Footage showed inspectors wearing face masks while bagging samples and sealing the shipping container the pistachios were in. The report also showed safety certificates from the U.S. issued to Cal-Pure Pistachios Inc., based in Bakersfield, California.
Telephone calls to Guangdong quarantine officials rang unanswered on Saturday.
China's shaky food safety record has come under scrutiny in recent months following the deaths of cats and dogs in the United States and Canada blamed on tainted Chinese pet food ingredients.
Since then, U.S. inspectors have banned or turned away a growing number of Chinese exports - from monkfish to juice to toothpaste - because they contained life-threatening levels of toxins or unsafe chemicals.
While it's not immediately clear if China's latest actions were taken in retaliation or if they were part of regular inspections, the report on state television indicates there's an increasing push to show that other countries also have food safety issues.
The Web site of the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, China's food safety agency, showed lists of products from 2006 and 2007 that had been turned away from countries including the United States, Canada, Japan, Singapore and Italy because they did not meet Chinese standards.
Late last month, France's Groupe Danone SA said China seized five containers of Evian water in February because of concern over high bacteria levels.
The U.S. FDA's assistant commissioner for food protection, Dr. David Acheson, said Friday that U.S. officials were seeking more information on the latest cases of American products being turned away.
"Whatever the motives are for this, if it's real, we want to know about it," Acheson said.
"Is it tit-for-tat? We don't know and probably won't ever know. If they found a legitimate problem with a product exported from the United States, we would want to know about it so we can look into it and fix it."
The Chinese quality supervision administration said Friday that inspectors in the ports of Ningbo and Shenzhen found bacteria and sulfur dioxide in health capsules and raisins shipped by K-Max Health Products Co., CMO Distribution Center of America, Inc., and Supervalu International Division. K-Max and CMO exported health capsules, including bee pollen and bacteria-fighting supplements. Supervalu exported Sun-Maid Golden Raisins, it said on its Web site. The shipments from K-Max and Supervalu have been destroyed and CMO's capsules were returned, the notice said. The Chinese announcement did not specify which contaminants were found in which products, saying only that they were found in amounts above acceptable levels.
It urged local authorities to step up inspections of imported food products and said Chinese importers should clarify food safety demands in contracts when importing U.S. food products, so as to lower the trade risk.
LLS
sounds like a load of $hit to me
Trade war! Trade war!
Fine with me. They tighten up standards, we tighten up standards, consumers in both countries win.
" I love the smell of burning pistachios in the morning."
Problem solved!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/6733045.stm
Communist China is nothing but filth and greed. Oh, and, most favoured nation status. They don’t have souls, so it is hardly surprising that they would treat their own people like this, and BTW, what freakin’ SANITARY CONDITIONS do they have? Creepy bio weapons, SARS, HIV rampant in the rural areas, pollution, a booming black market body parts business (run by the Communist gov’t) concentration camps for Falun Gong people, an incestuous relationship with madman Kim in NK, what in the hell have the Communist Chinese contributed to this world besides misery?
If only we’d done the same when their wonderful Asian Longhorned Beetles had been shipped into the US.
Yep. There is a HUGE difference between termites ACCIDENTALLY getting into a shipment of pistachios and the Chinese INTENTIONALLY putting a poison into foodstuffs to skew protein content tests. No comparison whatsoever.
Why if this keeps up, somebody in America might have to manufacture something.
The Great Raisin War. Wait ‘til they hear about the U.S. fruitcakes that have been around since 1948.
Did not even waste my time to read the article. But I am assuming the article fits the title...
China, as well as most of the orient, you could smell before you could see em back in the Day while on the seas. And I would be willing to bet the same smell is still there. And they want to talk about our Sanitary Products!!??
Thanks for the chuckle this morning...
"Some day this war is going to end."
I wonder if the good folks in China (or mexico) are propagandized enough to really believe the u. S will allow itself to lose?
And have our CEOs earning mere tens of millions instead of hundreds of millions? Perish the thought.
A wall to keep out interlopers from the north...sounds like a good idea to me...
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