Safe Food for Japan

The New York Times ^ | October 11, 2007 | By Martin Fackler

[JACKRUSSELL]

(TOKYO) — With Americans growing increasingly concerned about the safety of Chinese products, Washington has begun looking for solutions in Japan.

The Japanese have developed tough approaches for ensuring the quality of Chinese imports, particularly food — in part by far more rigorous testing of its imported food than in the United States. But the innovation getting the most American attention is Japan’s system for screening Chinese producers even before they ship their merchandise to Japan.

A report released last week by the House Energy and Commerce Committee cited Japan’s system for monitoring spinach and other Chinese food exports as a possible model for importers in the United States. Last month, a White House working group issued its own report after visiting Tokyo, and even Chinese officials have urged the United States to adopt the Japanese approach.

Citing the Food and Drug Administration, the House report described Japan’s model as the most realistic one for protecting American consumers. “The Japanese system of regulating Chinese food imports does appear to offer better control than that currently used by F.D.A.,” it concluded.

The program is the product of Japan’s longer experience with Chinese safety problems, going back to the discovery five years ago of high levels of pesticide in Chinese frozen spinach. Americans have become more conscious of such safety issues this year, with the highly publicized recalls of Chinese-made toys contaminated with lead paint and pet food ingredients containing hazardous chemicals.

“Japan is five years ahead of the rest of the world in dealing with quality problems from China,” said Tatsuya Kakita, the author of several books here on food safety. “The world can learn from Japan.”......

[JACKRUSSELL]

”Made in China” Ping.

(Please FReepmail me if you would like to be on or off of the list.)

[kittymyrib]

Since when has the USA been unable to grow enough food for our consumption? Since the greedy food companies decided that it was much cheaper to buy Chinese slop to feed their customers, thus running American producers and processors out of business. If you want cheap food, and don’t grow any yourself, you are at the mercy of people who don’t care about quality, only the profit they can make.

[mamelukesabre]

Why don’t we just ask mexico if they want the job of growing our food?

[Ronin]

Maybe so, but I still won’t touch Chinese produce.

There are still plenty of small farms outside and even inside Tokyo, and if the price is a bit higher, such is the cost of quality.

[RedQuill]

I won't touch the stuff ever since I found out Rooty eats Chinese food.

[Vigilanteman]

Why don’t we just ask Mexico if they want the job of growing our food?

On the surface, it sounds logical. Mexico has a lot of arable land and a climate that allows double and even triple crop harvests in a year. The big problem, I think, is the sanitary standards such as water supplies polluted with ka-ka and an unwillingness to do what would be necessary to ensure the safety of the food supply such as honest and competent inspection and enforcement.

With transportation being a major cost of agricultural produce, one would think Mexico would have a natural advantage over China. I've worked the import side in Japan and can tell you that their inspectors are both competent and honest to the point that they drive you crazy with their minute attention to detail-- just the opposite of Mexico.

[Clovis_Skeptic]

Since when has the USA been unable to grow enough food for our consumption? Since the greedy food companies decided that it was much cheaper to buy Chinese slop to feed their customers, thus running American producers and processors out of business

mmmm....yes! Our plan is working!

[mamelukesabre]

He11 then, lets get our food from japan. Let japan be the middle man.

[biscuit jane]

“Since when has the USA been unable to grow enough food for our consumption? Since the greedy food companies decided that it was much cheaper to buy Chinese slop to feed their customers, thus running American producers and processors out of business. If you want cheap food, and don’t grow any yourself, you are at the mercy of people who don’t care about quality, only the profit they can make”

---

Exactly. Remember when we used export gobs of food (among other things) ?

I commend Japan but I’d rather just cut China out completely. The USA don’t need ‘em don’t want ‘em.

[Last Dakotan]

Nobody knows trade barriers like the Japanese.

[Ronin]

Hey now, I wouldn’t go that far.

I love good, well-prepared Chinese food. It’s a virtual certainty that you can get better Chinese in a lot of places in Tokyo than you will ever get in Beijing.

In fact, I have a lot of associates in Singapore of Chinese decent and recently spent a week there myself. The food is awesome — minus the MSG that is shoved into virtually everything made for eating in China itself.

Good, well-prepared chow is to be appreciated wherever the recipe originates.

[RedQuill]

NO WAY. Period. No food that Julie-Annie eats is ever going down this gullet.

Oh--you got mail.

[Zhang Fei]

Spinach now costs about $4 a pound in suburban Tokyo, two to two and a half times what an American might pay, though most of that difference results from other factors, like Japan’s archaic distribution system.

Here's the key passage. At $4 a pound, we don't need Chinese produce. We could buy Thai, Colombian, etc for half as much, without the fussy inspections. The Japanese system isn't so much a safety inspection system as it is a way to keep foreign products out. It's probably one of the things that has kept Japan's economic growth at roughly zero over the past 20 years. If we go down this road for countries other than China, we can expect trade wars the world over.