Thread: It's not just about the pet food (or toothpaste)

It's not just about the pet food (or toothpaste)

By Peter Kovacs
North Lake Tahoe (Nev.) Bonanza
May 6, 2007

LOST AMID the anxiety surrounding the tainted U.S. pet food supply is this sobering reality: It's not just pet owners who should be worried. The uncontrolled distribution of low-quality imported food ingredients, mainly from China, poses a grave threat to public health worldwide.

Essential ingredients, such as vitamins used in many packaged foods, arrive at U.S. ports from China and, as recent news reports have underscored, are shipped without inspection to food and beverage distributors and manufacturers. Although they are used in relatively small quantities, these ingredients carry enormous risks for American consumers. One pound of tainted wheat gluten could, if undetected, contaminate as much as a thousand pounds of food.

Unlike imported beef, which is inspected at the point of processing by the U.S. Agriculture Department, few practical safeguards have been established to ensure the quality of food ingredients from China.

Missing Capability

Often, U.S. officials don't know where or how such ingredients were produced. We know, however, that alarms have been raised about hygiene and labor standards at many Chinese manufacturing facilities. In China, municipal water used in the manufacturing process is often contaminated with heavy metals, pesticides and other chemicals. Food ingredient production is particularly susceptible to environmental contamination.

Equally worrisome, U.S. officials often lack the capability to trace foreign-produced food ingredients to their source of manufacture. In theory, the Bioterrorism Prevention Act of 2001 provides some measure of traceability. In practice, the act is ineffective and was not designed for this challenge. Its enforcement is also shrouded in secrecy by the Department of Homeland Security.

Even if Food and Drug Administration regulators wanted to crack down on products emanating from the riskiest foreign facilities, they couldn't, because they have no way of knowing which ingredients come from which plant. This is why officials have spent weeks searching for the original Chinese source of the contaminated wheat gluten that triggered the pet food crisis.

Contaminated Vitamin A

That it was pet food that got tainted -- and that relatively few pets were harmed -- is pure happenstance. Earlier this spring, Europe narrowly averted disaster when a batch of vitamin A from China was found to be contaminated with Enterobacter sakazakii, which has been proved to cause infant deaths.

Thankfully, the defective vitamin A had not yet been incorporated into infant formula. Next time we may not be so fortunate.

Currently, most of the world's vitamins are manufactured in China. Unable to compete, the last U.S. plant making vitamin C closed a year ago. One of Europe's largest citric acid plants shut last winter, and only one vitamin C manufacturer operates in the West.

Given China's cheap labor, artificially low prices and the unfair competitive climate it has foisted on the industry, few Western producers of food ingredients can survive much longer. Western companies have had to invest heavily in Chinese facilities.

Unregulated Vitamin C

These Western-owned plants follow strict standards and are generally better managed than their locally owned counterparts. Nevertheless, 80 percent of the world's vitamin C is now manufactured in China -- much of it unregulated and some of it of questionable quality.

Europe is ahead of the United States in seeking greater accountability and traceability in food safety and importation. But even the European Union's "rapid alert system" is imperfect. Additional action is required if the continent is to avoid catastrophes.

To protect consumers here, we must revise our regulatory approaches. The first option is to institute regulations, based on the European model, to ensure that all food ingredients are thoroughly traceable. We should impose strict liability on manufacturers that fail to enforce traceability standards.

A draconian alternative is to mount a program modeled on USDA beef inspection for all food ingredients coming into the country. This regimen would require a significant commitment of resources and intensive training for hundreds of inspectors.

Bipartisan Issue

Food safety is a bipartisan issue: Congress and the administration must work together and move aggressively to devise stricter standards. Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), chairman of the House Government Reform Committee, has deplored dangerous levels of lead in vitamin products originating in China.

We must get to the bottom of this pressing public health issue, without self-defeating finger-pointing.

The United States is sitting on powder keg with uncontrolled importation and the distribution of low-quality food ingredients. Before it explodes -- putting more animals and people at risk -- corrective steps must be taken.

The writer was president of NutraSweet Kelco Co. from 1994 to 1997. He is a management consultant to many large food ingredient companies.Originall y printed in the Washington Post.

© Copyright 2007 tahoebonanza. com

http://www.tahoebon anza.com: 80/article/ 20070506/ Opinion/10506004 8



Chicken from China?
Questionable farming practices fuel skepticism of U.S. plan to import poultry

By Diedtra Henderson
The Boston Globe
May 9, 2007

WASHINGTON -- In China, some farmers try to maximize the output from their small plots by flooding produce with unapproved pesticides, pumping livestock with antibiotics banned in the United States, and using human feces as fertilizer to boost soil productivity. But the questionable practices don't end there: Chicken pens are frequently suspended over ponds where seafood is raised, recycling chicken waste as a food source for seafood, according to a leading food safety expert who served as a federal adviser to the Food and Drug Administration.

China's suspect agricultural practices could soon affect American consumers. Federal authorities are working on a proposal to allow chickens raised, slaughtered, and cooked in China to be sold here, and under current regulations, store labels do not have to indicate the meat's origin.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, China's top agricultural export goal is opening the U.S. market to its cooked chickens. Representative Rosa DeLauro, who is fighting the change, says China does not deserve entry to the coveted, closed poultry market.

Ballooning Chinese Exports

Agricultural exports from China to the United States ballooned from $1 billion in 2002 to nearly $2.3 billion in 2006 , according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service . DeLauro, Democrat of Connecticut and chairwoman of a U.S. House agricultural subcommittee , said Congress should signal its willingness to restrict imports from China until it improves food safety oversight.

"There is deception. There is lax regulation, and they've got unsanitary conditions," DeLauro said. "They need to hear from us they're at risk. Congress has to look at limiting some of their agricultural imports."

The USDA, which shares food safety oversight with the FDA, says its proposal to allow the sale of Chinese chicken is in the early stages and that there will be many opportunities for the public to be heard on the matter. Under the plan, any country seeking to export meat , poultry, or egg products to the United States must earn "equivalency, " with documentation that its product is as safe and wholesome as the domestic competition. USDA officials would review records, conduct on-site audits, and confirm that foreign laboratories could ensure the food's safety, said Steven Cohen, a spokesman for the USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service . The agency would also inspect imported products as they enter the nation, he said.

"This is a process that has barely begun, and there is a very lengthy review," Cohen said.

A Bad Idea?

According to Lucius Adkins, president of United Poultry Growers Association , the idea "should be strangled in infancy." The group represents more than 700 producers in Georgia, one of the nation's leading poultry producing states.

"You don't know what conditions existed in that plant [in China]. You didn't have a government representative there watching [poultry] being slaughtered and processed. It's going to come here packaged," Adkins said. "They're already killing our pets. Do we want to eat their food?"

The National Chicken Council, which represents companies that produce 95 percent of U.S.-grown poultry, has not taken a position on the USDA's proposal.

Each American will eat an estimated 85 pounds of broiler chickens this year, down from 88 pounds last year -- the first per-capita decrease since 1973 . Currently, the US imports almost no poultry, except for a small amount of chicken exported by Canadian producers, said Richard Lobb, a spokesman for the trade association.

International Diet

But Americans do eat food from around the world, Lobb said. "People don't have any problem with potpie from Canada. How they would feel about frozen chicken from China or specialty Chinese products that are canned or dried or something, I don't know."

In China's agricultural system, many farmers toil on 1-acre plots, while U.S. farmers often work thousands of acres, said Michael Doyle, director of the Center for Food Safety at the University of Georgia and former chairman of the FDA's science advisory board.

In China, "there are hundreds of thousands of these little farms," Doyle said. "They have small ponds. And over the ponds -- in not all cases, but in many cases -- they'll have chicken cages. It might be like 20,000 chickens in cages. The chicken feces is what feeds the shrimp."

Salmonella and Antibiotics

The USDA has found that up to 10 percent of shrimp imported from China contains salmonella, he said. Even more worrisome are shrimp imported from China that contain antibiotics that no amount of cooking can neutralize. Last month alone [1], the FDA rejected 51 shipments of catfish , eel , shrimp, and tilapia imported from China because of such contaminants as salmonella , veterinary drugs, and nitrofuran , a cancer-causing chemical. A long history of such test results spurred the FDA to begin working proactively with Chinese farmers on safer seafood production methods, Doyle said.

"In terms of harmful bacteria, consumers have control over that. Even in [poultry] we produce in the U.S., there is contamination with salmonella," Doyle said. "In terms of veterinary drugs and pesticides, well, good food handling practices won't fix that. That has to be addressed in the country of origin."

Joan Zahka, a Lexington woman, said she wouldn't buy Chinese poultry, based on what she has seen firsthand. Zahka grows her own greens and herbs, and when her children were young she ground organic baby food before it was sold in stores. She shops at Whole Foods for fresh produce and scrutinizes country of origin labels the grocery store chain voluntarily posts.

"There is no way I'm going to knowingly buy chicken from China," Zahka said. "There are all kinds of red flags for me. I've traveled through China. I know we have a much greater value on life here."

© Copyright 2007 Globe Newspaper Company.

http://www.boston. com/business/ articles/ 2007/05/09/ chicken_from_ china/

[1] -- See the Postscript below.



States ban catfish imports from China over tests

By Melanie Peeples
NPR
May 11, 2007

CATFISH IMPORTS from China are causing economic and health concerns in the South. Tests on some frozen catfish fillets from China have found two antibiotics banned by the Food and Drug Administration.

Alabama has banned catfish from China, after it determined that the fillets contained the antibiotics. Mississippi has halted store sales of the imported fish; Louisiana and Arkansas plan to test all catfish imported from China.

Aside from any threat to health, the imports have also been a threat to the economy of the Mississippi Delta, which provides more than three-fourths of the catfish eaten in the United States.

The U.S. catfish business was booming until about eight years ago, when a wave of cheap imports from Asia pushed prices down and started putting American catfish farmers out of business.

Drained U.S. Ponds

On the western edge of Mississippi, large rectangular ponds are laid out like football fields, as farmers raise fish where their forebears once grew vegetables. But it is now common to see drained catfish ponds, as farmers exit the business.

Catfish farmer Paul Dees says he and other farmers have for years been telling officials that Asian catfish ponds were filthy and pumped full of antibiotics. But, he says, it took the recent Chinese melamine scare to get the government's attention.

"I believe if you go cheap you get cheap," Dees said.

Knowledgeable Farmers

Roger Barlow is vice president of the trade group Catfish Farmers of America. He says once states finally started testing imported catfish themselves, they found the domestic farmers were right.

Repeated tests by Mississippi and Alabama show the presence of fluoroquinolone antibiotics, which the FDA has banned for use, saying they lead to the emergence of antibiotic-resistan t bacteria.

Mississippi Department of Agriculture Commissioner Lester Spell is banning retail sales of particular brands.

Spell says that it is the Food and Drug Administration's responsibility to police the food coming into the United States Â* and he thinks the agency isn't doing enough.

Last year, Spell says, the FDA blocked 49 shipments of Chinese catfish. And 10 were blocked this past January.

Tremendous Problem

"Well, we know the FDA only checks a little over 1 percent of the food," Spell says. "So if you're finding that type of volume, there's a tremendous problem out there. That's just the tip of the iceberg."

Spell says that while the FDA lacks the staff and resources to check more of the food coming into the United States the onus should be put on the foreign producers.

The FDA has yet to take any sweeping action against the Chinese catfish; the agency is conducting its own tests.

For now, American catfish farmers are hoping shoppers and diners will start insisting on domestically- grown catfish.

Copyright 2007 NPR

http://www.npr. org/templates/ story/story. php?storyId= 10141686



Asia fears foods from China

By Shihoko Goto, UPI senior correspondent World Peace Herald May 11, 2007

TOKYO -- China may continue to be the ultimate source for household goods and appliances, but when it comes to food, consumers are becoming increasingly wary. Concern about fresh produce grown in China is particularly increasing in Asia.

Earlier this week, the Chinese government acknowledged that cough syrup made in the country and then exported to Panama was manufactured by a company that was not licensed to sell pharmaceuticals. About 100 Panamanians are believed to have died by consuming a chemical similar to antifreeze, which was bottled by the Taixing Glycerine factory. [1]

China's Foreign Ministry admitted that the company was licensed only to sell chemicals for industrial use, but argued nonetheless that the government strictly regulates the pharmaceutical industry. Neither Taixing nor any individual working for the company has been charged with causing the deaths in Panama.

Illegal Additives

Also this week, the Chinese government admitted that two Chinese companies added chemicals to pet food that led to thousands of animals dying in the United States. Both Xuzhou Anying Biologic Technology Development and Binzhou Futian Biology Technology were found to have added melamine to food additives. To guarantee export, they did not make it clear that melamine had been added. According to industry experts, melamine is used to produce glues and fertilizers, but when added to food it can make it appear more protein-rich.

"The two companies illegally added melamine to the wheat gluten and rice protein in a bid to meet the contractual demand for the amount of protein in the products," China's General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine stated. But again, no company or individual has yet been deemed responsible for the ploy.

While the United States and other countries have stepped up calls for China to improve its food and drug labeling processes, countries across Asia are also worried about the foods that do not get labeled and yet make it to their markets -- fresh fruits and vegetables as well as fish and meat.

Unlabeled Foods

After all, in the United States and Europe, Chinese-made products ranging from T-shirts to toys may flood the markets, but when it comes to food, the made in China label still remains a minority, particularly for fresh produce. For the Asian region at large, China's vast territory is also a source of food imports, much of it unprocessed and without any labeling.

Reports of Chinese-farmed vegetables grown by using chemicals banned in Japan or unsanitary conditions appear on a regular basis. For instance, fresh spinach grown with banned chemicals was recalled from supermarkets across Japan about a year ago, while about three years ago, the Japanese arm of Boston-based Mister Donuts saw its fortunes slump after it was found that their sandwiches were made using spring onions from China that were infected with the E. coli 0-157 bacteria.

Indeed, the international environmental group Greenpeace found last year that of all the Chinese-grown produce sold in Hong Kong supermarkets, 25 percent of the sampled fruit and vegetables were tainted with fertilizers that have been deemed unsafe for human consumption by the group.

Ignored Chinese Produce

At the basement food hall of Tokyo's Seibu department store Thursday, women flocked to buy fresh organic greens from a farmer in western Japan priced about $8 for a small handful. A few boxes down, a similar-looking bag of leaves was being sold for less than half that price, but there seemingly were no interested buyers.

"That's made in China. You just can't be sure what chemicals were used to grow them . . . I don't want to put my body at risk like that," said Maki Tateshina, who was shopping on her way back home from work. She added, "If I'm eating it, I want to make sure it's safe. And I really don't have that confidence about Chinese produce."

Copyright 2007 News World Communications, Inc.

http://tinyurl. com/yp6jey < http://tinyurl. com/yp6jey>

[1] -- See the Postscript below.



Postscript

April, 2007 FDA refusals of foods and foodstuffs from China -- http://www.fda. gov:80/ora/ oasis/4/ora_ oasis_c_cn. html < http://www.fda. gov:80/ora/ oasis/4/ora_ oasis_c_cn. html>

China's pharmaceuticals mirror its food and foodstuffs. -- http://tinyurl. com/2dsew9 < http://tinyurl. com/2dsew9>

Spell says that while the FDA lacks the staff and resources to check more of the food coming into the United States the onus should be put on the foreign producers.

If we know the problem exist, why aren't we doing something about it? This is just another fine example of our governments concern for the well-being of American citizens!

Look into the Georgia Guidestones or American Stonehendge. Everytime I read things like this I remember the chilling message carved there about maintaining a certain level of world population.