Bulletproofvest

I've been wondering about this, and this entry is only half-thought out.

Food safety woes in China are now coming to everyone's centerscreen, what with pet food tainted with melamine killing all those animals in the United States. Pet food, you ask, what does that have to do with me?

The list of Chinese food exports rejected at American ports reads like a chef's nightmare: pesticide-laden pea pods, drug-laced catfish, filthy plums and crawfish contaminated with salmonella.

Just as with manufactured goods, exports of meat, produce, and processed foods from China have soared in recent years, prompting outcries from foreign farm sectors that are feeling pinched by low Chinese prices.

Worried about losing access to foreign markets and stung by tainted food products scandals at home, China has in recent years tried to improve inspections, with limited success.

The problems the government faces are legion. Pesticides and chemical fertilizers are used in excess to boost yields while harmful antibiotics are widely administered to control disease in seafood and livestock. Rampant industrial pollution risks introducing heavy metals into the food chain.

Read here.

The most likely source of contamination are imported vegetables. According to the NSO, 82% of our imported fresh and chilled vegetables comes from China (2002). There is no way to account for smuggled vegetables, except theoretically, when one takes note of the fact that demand has increased at a rate that actual imports and local production hasn't kept pace with. This includes such vegetables that we normally just wash, and not cook, like fresh mushrooms, lettuce, spinach, and cabbage. And that's just vegetables.

Excessive antibiotic or pesticide residues have caused bans in Europe and Japan on Chinese shrimp, honey and other products. Hong Kong blocked imports of turbot last year after inspectors found traces of malachite green, a possibly cancer-causing chemical used to treat fungal infections, in some fish.

I'd hate to think that we would become the dumping ground of rejected food -- are we among the scrapeaters at the dinner table?

Our country's largest edible imports -- rice, animal feed, other edible products and preparations -- are sourced from China, and is unlikely going to change origins any time soon. The gluten poisoning in pet food is no different from a possible contamination of imported flour from China, which lots of local bakers use. What we have to know is if our government can guarantee that the food we import is safe to eat. When was the last time the government guaranteed anything for the end-of-the-line consumer?

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