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A third or more of all the honey consumed in the U.S. is likely to have been smuggled in from China and may be tainted with illegal antibiotics and heavy metals. A Food Safety News investigation has documented that millions of pounds of honey banned as unsafe in dozens of countries are being imported and sold here in record quantities. And the flow of Chinese honey continues despite assurances from the Food and Drug Administration and other federal officials that the hundreds of millions of pounds reaching store shelves were authentic and safe following the widespread arrests and convictions of...

Japan to refrain from claiming safety of Japanese foods TOKYO (Kyodo) -- Japanese Foreign Minister Takeaki Matsumoto has instructed his ministry to refrain from claiming the safety of Japanese foods, changing its stance after radiation-contamination beef was found to have been sold to consumers in Japan, sources close to the matter said Sunday. The change is due to discoveries of radiation-contaminated meat from cattle fed rice straw laden with radioactive cesium spewed from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, which was crippled by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.

In his press conference today President Barack Obama did what we'd expect more from a terrorist than the leader of the free world. He threatened that if we don't give him more money, the nation's food supply may be compromised. His exact words when answering a question about negotiations to raise the nation's $14.3 trillion debt ceiling: "If we choose to keep those tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires...then that means we've got to cut some kids off from getting a college scholarship. That means we've got to stop funding certain grants for medical research. That means that food safety...

Ministries divided over radioactive tea The Yomiuri Shimbun Local farmers have been thrown into confusion after the health and farm ministries expressed differing views over shipments of tea harvested in Kanagawa Prefecture after fresh leaves were found to have exceeded government limits for radioactive cesium. The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry has been trying to restrict shipments of tea leaves from the prefecture about 300 kilometers from the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant due to health concerns. The Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry, however, has claimed that despite the high levels of radioactive material, drinking tea made from the...

Top 10 Chinese Food Scandals The massive stockpile of melamine-tainted milk powder seized from Chinese warehouses is the latest in a long line of food scandals. Here are 10 others: By Peter Foster, Beijing 11:00AM BST 27 Apr 2011 Melamine Milk scandal Toxic Bean-sprouts Pesticide-drenched ‘yard-long’ beans Leather milk ‘Aluminium’ dumplings Glow-in-the-dark pork ‘Lean meat powder’ pork Toxic take-away boxes ‘Sewer’ oil ‘Cadmium’ rice

Mystery of the 'glowing' pork BLUE pork, now that sounds tasty. A Shanghai resident found the pork she bought was giving off a "blue fluorescence" at night. Food safety experts said the blue light may have been caused by a photobacterium that contaminated the pork. They added that the pork would not harm people's health if it was well cooked. The resident surnamed Chen, who lives in Gaohang Town in the Pudong New Area, bought a kilogram of pork from a market on Yanggao Road N. on Tuesday. She used some of the pork to make dumplings that night and...

Ugh. Hong Kong's English daily South China Morning Post has a distinctly unsavory dispatch from the Chinese media this morning: Government scientists have released research that millions of acres of Chinese agricultural land and over 12 million tons of Chinese grain are contaminated by toxic metal pollution, according to this week's edition of the China Economic Weekly, a state-run magazine. Last week, a separate article reported that 10% of Chinese rice contained excess cadmium, a heavy metal known to cause cancer.

Once again, outgoing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, along with her sidekicks Waxman and Dingell, has used legislative "sleight-of-hand" to force through the “Consumer Assistance to Recycle and Save Act” (H.R.2751) with S.510 attached. Just today, the Bill passed on a vote of 215 For and 144 Against. It is rich irony indeed that the "Cash for Clunkers" reauthorization bill (H.R.2751) has provided the ride for S.510, another “clunker” that will unleash an avalanche of useless, business-killing paperwork upon the food industry and a swarm of parasitic FDA bureaucrats. The result will be, as we have said all along, a food...

Amidst the hustle and bustle of the “lame duck” Congress, another law was passed that didn’t quite get the same media coverage as the Bush tax extension “package,” the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, and the new START treaty. The Food Safety Modernization Act was not steeped in the same level of popular controversy as these other pieces of legislation. Nevertheless, its passage may affect our daily lives even more than these, and in a rather stealth manner. Yes, the week before Christmas, the 111th Congress of the United States gave Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of Health and Human Services...

The Shelbyville chief of police and a former Tyson employee confirmed that threatening messages surfaced this week, leading to extra security at the plant. "A couple days ago, they had a terrorist threat that was written on the bathroom walls that said 'all Americans must die,'" said a woman, who said she wanted to remain anonymous to protect her relative, who works inside the plant. She said that she didn't see the writing herself but is aware of what's going on from others. "One day last week, someone set the women's bathroom on fire, and they finally put a security...

Exclusive: The Dept. of Homeland Security Uncovered a Plot to Attack Hotels and Restaurants Over a Single Weekend In this exclusive story, CBS News chief investigative correspondent Armen Keteyian reports the latest terror attack to America involves the possible use of poisons - simultaneous attacks targeting hotels and restaurants at many locations over a single weekend. A key Intelligence source has confirmed the threat as "credible." Department of Homeland Security officials, along with members of the Department of Agriculture and the FDA, have briefed a small group of corporate security officers from the hotel and restaurant industries about it. "We...

The Senate has passed a sweeping bill to make food safer, sending it to the House in the waning days of Congress. This is the second time the Senate has passed the bill, which would give the government broad new powers to increase inspections of food processing facilities and force companies to recall tainted food. The chamber passed the bill for the first time three weeks ago, but it was caught in a constitutional snag when senators mistakenly included tax provisions that are by law supposed to originate in the House. The version of the legislation passed by the Senate...

A major food safety bill that had almost been given up for dead was suddenly revived in the Senate late on Sunday evening, and may be ready for House approval as early as Tuesday. In a parliamentary move laid out on the Senate floor by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid just after 7pm, the Senate took the food safety language that was passed as part of a stop-gap budget plan by the House, attached it to another House-passed bill and approved that by unanimous consent. A Democratic Senate aide told me that Republicans did not object to the plan, even...

Tainted hotpots 'common' * Source: Global Times * [08:09 December 16 2010] By Huang Jingjing Food safety has once again drawn negative attention amid claims that many flavoring ingredients served in popular hotpot dishes at restaurants contain harmful chemical additives, according to insiders. "Eighty percent of hotpots served at (restaurants) contain such chemical additives," said Wang, a chef who recently quit from a hotpot restaurant due to guilty feelings over the practice, the Anhui Business Daily reported Tuesday. A restaurant owner named Xu made a damning claim, saying he never eats hotpots at his restaurant because boiling the chemical additives...

Democrats passed a massive budget bill late Wednesday night. The bill narrowly passed by a 212-206 vote. “A widely backed food safety bill is hitching a ride on the legislation. The measure passed the Senate by a 73-25 vote last week but got caught in a snag because it contained revenue provisions that, under the Constitution, must originate in the House.” Yahoo News That’s right, S.510 has apparently HITCHED a ride on the budget bill that was passed during a late night session. Our food freedom has possibly been destroyed by the lame duck congress and their big agriculture masters....

WASHINGTON -- Food safety legislation stalled by a constitutional snag could be revived as part of a giant year-end budget bill. The bill to increase the Food and Drug Administration's powers to keep food safe stalled after overwhelmingly passing the Senate last week. House Democrats said after it passed that the bill contains fees that are considered tax provisions, which under the Constitution must originate in the House.

Target said Friday that it's taking seriously a woman's claim that a dead mouse stuck at the bottom of her store-brand pancake syrup bottle got there during the manufacturing process. Rena Snyder, 36, of Dassel, Minn., said she made the discovery Tuesday morning while eating waffles and syrup at her mother's house in nearby Cokato. The 24-ounce Market Pantry Light syrup was bought by her mother at a Target store in Hutchinson. Snyder, who is expecting a baby late this month, said she came down with an intestinal illness for more than a day after eating the syrup. Target representatives...

It is times like these you know Harry Reid is thinking “that Constitution is such a pesky thing.” After spending its very limited time on a largely unknown bill that Democrats would have touted as a major success, it turns out that they overlooked one tiny little problem in the bill. Article I, Section 7 of the Constitution states that tax increases must come from the House of Representatives. Unfortunately for Reid and Senate Democrats Section 107 of bill S510 includes fees that are designated as revenue raisers. That is political talk for a tax. Since that right is held...

I tuned into the news this morning as I usually do and just stood there in slack-jawed awe at the utter insanity being foisted on Americans. Sure, you shake yourself and hope you’ll wake up… But then you realize that this isn’t a nighttime terror, it’s a real life horror and the inmates are officially ruling the asylum. I’d just like to ask the Republicans one question… Have you lost your ever-loving, freaking minds? What the hell is wrong with you? Tell me this isn’t suicidal insanity – please: 1. Republicans are now getting ready to support the START Treaty....

I mentioned last week that a new Big Foodie bill opposed by a diverse coalition of limited government activists, small family farmers, and left-leaning “locovores” was coming down the pike.Today, I’m disappointed to tell you, the regulatory expansion bill masquerading as a “safety” measure passed by a large margin — with stomach-turning Republican support.Here’s the roll call vote.The 15 power-grabby Republicans who voted for it:Alexander (R-TN) Brown (R-MA) Burr (R-NC) Collins (R-ME) Enzi (R-WY) Grassley (R-IA) Gregg (R-NH) Johanns (R-NE) Kirk (R-IL) LeMieux (R-FL) Lugar (R-IN) Murkowski (R-AK) Snowe (R-ME) Vitter (R-LA) Voinovich (R-OH)The Senate bill must be reconciled with...