Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Anti-U.S. Food Safety Propaganda

On September 27, the Ministry of Commerce issued documents announcing an antidumping investigation of imported chicken products originating in the United States. The investigation covers broiler products of chicken products. In case you're wondering, this includes HS codes 02071100、02071200、02071311、02071319、02071321、02071329、02071411、02071419、02071421、02071422、02071429 and 05040021。

On September 30, an article posted by the National Food Quality and Safety Supervision and Testing Center trumpets "Emerging Problems with Imported Food From the United States." A google search shows the article was carried on dozens of Chinese web sites.

According to the article, testing by Chinese inspection officials have been catching an increasing number of food products from the United States. Of a 154-name “black list”, 39 problem products came from the United States. Of those, 12 were frozen pork and frozen chicken meat. "Lean meat powder" (probably ractopamine which is legal in the U.S.; in China this term usually refers to clenbuterol) was detected in some frozen pork and pig feet, and staphylococcus aureus and nitrofurazone were found on some chicken. These contaminants are frequently found in US exported products.

Companies like Mead Johnson, Coca Cola, Pepsi, and Proctor and Gamble are on the “black list.” The article says, statistics clearly show that problems with America food quality are rising.

After the domestic dairy industry crisis, how can more food safety problems becoming from America? A knowledgeable person about the industry in southern China says, “The financial crisis is putting cost pressure on American food industry. Companies are cutting corners on raw materials and internal quality control to save on costs. This trend directly affects the quality of American food.”

"That’s not all," says the expert. “What’s worse is that some companies are using cheaper ingredients to substitute for usual ones. Worse yet, some companies are sending ‘garbage’ that won’t pass U.S. quality inspections to sell in the Chinese market.”

Sounds to me like he's reading from the Chinese manufacturer's instruction manual.

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