Latest Food Scandal in China
-
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/printer-friendly.asp?ARTICLE_ID=56923
Monday, July 30, 2007
Latest China scare: Don't eat the ginger
Traces of hazardous pesticide found on imports of fresh herb
WASHINGTON ? In the latest of a long line of scares over food imports from China, the U.S. Food & Drug Administration and the California Department of Public Health are warning the public not to eat fresh ginger from that country.
Certain batches of ginger, commonly used in Chinese and Japanese dishes, were found to be contaminated with traces of a hazardous pesticide called Aldicarb sulfoxide. The pesticide can cause humans to be poisoned within the first hour of exposure.
Ingestion of foods contaminated with low levels of aldicarb may cause flu-like symptoms (nausea, headache, blurred vision), which disappear quickly, usually within five or six hours, according to the California agency. At higher levels of ingestion, aldicarb-contaminated food can also cause dizziness, salivation, excessive sweating, vomiting, diarrhea, muscle stiffness and twitching, and difficulty in breathing.
The ginger has been found in Albertson's stores and Save Mart stories in Northern California.
(Story continues below)
So far, there have been no reports of illness as a result of consumption of the imported ginger. Individuals who may have consumed the ginger and are experiencing adverse health effects should contact their health care providers immediately, according to the California agency.
Scandals over Chinese food exports unfit for human consumption have been breaking around the world ? making a major impact on the country's economy and fragile psychology.
Following the pet food poisoning that killed or maimed an estimated 39,000 cats and dogs in the U.S., WND embarked on an investigation of other Chinese imports. What it has found to date:
Foods imported for consumption by American humans may be, in some cases, as dangerous as the pet food. A WND study found the vast majority of imported foods rejected as unfit for human consumption by the Food and Drug Administration are from China. FDA inspectors report tainted food imports intended for American humans are being rejected with increasing frequency because they are filthy, are contaminated with pesticides and tainted with carcinogens, bacteria and banned drugs.
China, the leading exporter of seafood to the U.S., is raising most of its fish products in water contaminated with raw sewage and compensating by using dangerous drugs and chemicals, many of which are banned by the Food and Drug Administration.
The deadly contaminant found in Chinese-made toothpaste ? diethylene glycol ? is a solvent used in antifreeze that killed 107 Americans when it was introduced in an elixir 70 years ago.
A resurgence in lead-poisoning cases in U.S. children is being linked to Chinese imports ? toys, makeup, glazed pottery and other products that contain significant amounts of lead and are being recalled by the CPSC on a regular basis.
Imports from China were recalled by the CPSC twice as often as products made everywhere else in the world, including the U.S., showed a WND study of 2007 government reports.
The rising cost of fireworks, almost all of which are made in China, as well as safety concerns and human rights concerns about the conditions of those manufacturing the products resulted in a decrease of Independence Day displays in the U.S.
WND revealed there are currently no safety standards established between the U.S. and China on food, drugs and other imports. As a result of WND's series, members of Congress began working on setting new standards.
WND revealed how China is shipping to the U.S. honey tainted with a potentially life-threatening antibiotic as well as adulterating exports with sugar.
The scandals are having a major impact on Chinese society, too.
"The food security problems have impeded Chinese agri-products and food many times in international trade, and damaged our national credibility and image," Sun Xianze, director of food safety coordination at the State Food and Drug Administration, said at a weekend seminar.
"The occurrence of food safety incidents or cases not only affects the healthy development of the whole industry, but also may impact upon economic and social stability." -
China imports...
-
On Honey -_-"
http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=56372 -
http://www.rense.com/general77/nat.htm
The 'All Natural' Food Scam
By Shannara Johnson
CaseyResearch.com
7-25-7
Following the recent food scare from China, 92% of consumers now want "Country of Origin" labels on their food, found the latest poll in Consumer Reports.
What a lot of people don't realize is that even food made in the U.S. provides no guarantee against being duped.
In an attempt to make healthier choices, many consumers pick food items with the label "Natural" in the grocery store.
A 2002 study by the National Consumers League (NCL) showed that 76% of the surveyed believed that foods with "natural" on the package contain at least 90% natural ingredients; another 80% thought "natural" products were good for them.
NCL President Linda Golodner begs to differ: "Products with the 'natural' labeling are not required by law to contain only natural ingredients."
In fact, in most cases "natural" doesn't mean anything, because  unlike the label "organic"  it has no definition in law or regulation.
There are only two exceptions: "Natural flavors" means by law that a flavor has to be derived from natural sources like fruit juice, spices, herbs, etc. And in meat, the USDA allows the word only for minimally processed meat and poultry products without artificial ingredients or added colors.
In every other context, natural means exactly what the food manufacturer  or rather, its advertising agency  wants it to mean.
"Food companies can get away with using all sorts of non-natural processes and chemical ingredients in a food product that they claim is all natural," says health advocate Mike Adams from NewsTarget.com. For example, foods fried at high temperatures, resulting in the formation of cancer-causing acrylamides, are routinely labeled 'all natural' in the snack section of the grocery store. And yet frying starches at high temperatures isn't natural at all  it's a human-invented process for making boring foods like potatoes taste interesting by loading them up with fat and salt."
Just because a food contains sea salt instead of regular salt, and peanut oil instead of hydrogenated oil, doesn't mean it's good for you.
Then what's the manufacturers' reasoning for their claims?
Adams explains, "They can take whole wheat berries from nature, mill them down and strip out 98% of the nutrients, bleach the flour with chemicals, 'enrich' the flour with synthetic chemical vitamins, and then claim their wheat is 'all natural.' And why is it natural? Because it comes from the earth, they would say. It was grown by nature."
Taking that as a premise, 99% of all food items could be called natural. What a scam.
Some grocery stores now offer nutritional guidance systems on their shelves: the Hannaford chain calls them "Guiding Stars," and they range from 0 for food items with little to no nutritional value to 3 for best pick.
But in the end, the best way to ensure you're getting healthy food is to go with organic food items and even then, pay attention to the amount of fat, salt and sugar added. If possible, buy locally grown food from farmers' markets and farm stands.
To your health! -
China food again.
-
Well thats china..
-
im not surprised
-
because of the toy recall that chinese company lost tens of millions.
one of the owners, a hongkonger, committed suicide.
-
After the revision of organic food in USA, I dun think organic food is the way to go nowOriginally posted by av98m:But in the end, the best way to ensure you're getting healthy food is to go with organic food items and even then, pay attention to the amount of fat, salt and sugar added. If possible, buy locally grown food from farmers' markets and farm stands.
To your health!
-
when was the last time you heard of lead paint being used at all?
decades ago right?
how the hell did those idiots get the lead paint?
why the hell did they use it?
how many children have had their brains slightly damaged?Originally posted by dragg:because of the toy recall that chinese company lost tens of millions.
one of the owners, a hongkonger, committed suicide. -
I think I see this topic somewhere else... best is dun eat anything.
-
here's another scandal
the Chinese colluded to raise the price of instant noodles!
really.. clicky here => ABC News -
Chopsticks picked up in new China scare
09:43 AM EDT
BEIJING (Reuters) - A Beijing factory sold up to 100,000 pairs of disposable chopsticks a day without any form of disinfection, a newspaper said on Wednesday, the latest in a string of food and product safety scares.
Counterfeit, shoddy and dangerous products are widespread in China, whose exports have been rocked in recent months by a spate of safety scandals, ranging from pet food to medicine, tires, toothpaste and toys.
Officials raided the factory and seized about half a million pairs of disposable bamboo chopsticks and a packaging machine, the Beijing News said in a story headlined "Dirty Chopsticks."
The owner, identified only by his surname Wu, said he had sold the chopsticks for 0.04 yuan a pair and made an average of about 1,000 yuan ($130) a day.
Wu, who had no license to sell the goods, said he had sold 100,000 pairs a day when business was good.
China lacks the manpower to enforce food and drug safety regulations at home or for export. Imports are generally carefully scrutinized.
Shao Mingli, the country's food and drug watchdog chief, conceded that in recent years the safety situation had "indeed been relatively grim."
But in a posting on the central government's Web site (www.gov.cn), Shao vowed it would take "about five years of hard work" to realize an "obvious turnaround" in management order and food and drug safety across the country.
"The number of cases of fake food and drug products and criminal activities will be effectively curbed," Shao said.
A lack of business ethics and a spiritual vacuum after China embraced economic reforms in the late 1970s have been blamed for unscrupulous business practices and corruption.
In Guangzhou, capital of booming Guangdong province in south China, Mayor Zhang Guangning vowed to bankrupt serious violators of food and product safety.
The Hong Kong owner of a Guangdong manufacturer at the centre of a recall of millions of Chinese-made toys by U.S. giant Mattel had committed suicide, according to Hong Kong media.
China has said the world should have faith in the "made-in-China" label and that a spate of product recalls has been unfair, biased and politically motivated.
"No country can guarantee their food to be 100 percent safe, but if one in 100 or even in 1,000 of our products has quality problems, we will deal with it seriously," Commerce Minister Bo Xilai said on Tuesday.
"China strongly opposes (some countries) extending individual economic and trade problems, and thus conducting trade protection," Bo said in a report on the ministry's Web site (www.mofcom.gov.cn).
In the latest in a series of tit-for-tat measures, China has accused the United States of exporting substandard soybean shipments to China and requested "effective measures" be taken.
(Additional reporting by Lindsay Beck) -
Is there something in the air? How come many chinese goods are in the spotlight nowadays?
