Thread: FDA opens office in China

FDA opens office in China



Enlarge By Elizabeth Dalziel, AP

A customer inspects a carton of eggs at a WalMart in Beijing on Tuesday. The U.S. is working with China on food safety.





By Calum MacLeod, USA TODAY
BEIJING — As Americans consume more food prepared outside the United States, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration opened its first overseas office Wednesday in China with others planned around the globe.
The move comes after the FDA last week ordered Chinese food products to be stopped at the U.S border until testing proves they are free of melamine, a chemical added to baby formula earlier this year that sickened thousands of Chinese infants.


CONTAMINATION: Feds stop all Chinese shipments containing milk at U.S. border

China has been the source of several food safety scares ranging from pet food to candy over the past 18 months.

"We are currently importing about 15% of the food we eat in the United States, and it is increasing every year," said David Acheson, the FDA's associate commissioner for foods, at the ribbon-cutting ceremony in China's capital. "It's much easier if we can build the collaboration at a local level rather than trying to do it from 8,000 miles away."


In addition to Beijing, the FDA will open offices this week in the cities of Shanghai and Guangzhou, plus two in India next month. U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt said offices will open in Latin America, Europe and the Middle East next year.

In China, eight American employees, with expertise in food, medicine and medical devices, will work with Chinese government agencies and producers to raise standards and guarantee quality before goods are bound for the United States.

The strategy is aimed at 200,000 food manufacturers from 150 countries that export to the USA.

"The American consumer wants to eat strawberries in February. We don't grow strawberries in the United States in February," FDA Commissioner Andrew von Eschenbach explained.

Regulators in China and the U.S. face a "major challenge," said Shao Mingli, commissioner of the Chinese State Food and Drug Administration. "Strengthening and developing cooperation is our only, common choice."

Shao's predecessor was executed last year after a corruption conviction and blame for approving unsafe pharmaceuticals.

U.S. businessmen in China welcomed the FDA's presence but noted its huge task.

"They are eight people and this is a huge industry," said Jeffrey Schultz of the R&D-based Pharmaceutical Association Committee, an industry group.

China's food and drug administration "has the hardest job in China — they've got thousands of factories that they need to regulate," he added.

The U.S. decision last week to hold up Chinese food imports annoyed China's government, which claims its own tests show the melamine scare is over.

"We feel deep regret that the U.S. insists on unilaterally taking these steps," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said this week. The official China Daily newspaper said Wednesday that "such unilateral action smacks of protectionism."

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington ... afda_N.htm

"Unilateral action smacks of protectionism?! What the hell does this stupid s-o-b think?! But only 8 Americans checking this stuff before export means we'll be lucky to have it show up on store shelves before it expires.