Poison toothpaste, killer cough-syrup, and tainted pet food are the tip of the disgusting iceberg of yuck heading our way from China. Over the past four months, the FDA has rejected 298 shipments from China that included “filthy” fruits, cancer-causing shrimp, and “poisonous” swordfish.
Rejected items often reappear at U.S. ports several times; importers gamble that the FDA, which only inspects 1% of regulated imports, won’t catch them in the act. Their slip-ups are detailed in stomach-wrenching refusal reports filed by the FDA.
Our puny food safety laws are no match for the wiles of Chinese importers. Federal law only allows the import of meat from foreign factories that have been certified to match domestic safety standards. Since no Chinese factories are currently certified, crafty Chinese meat smugglers simply send us their meat labeled as something else.
Some were shipped in crates labeled “dried lily flower,” “prune slices” and “vegetables,” according to news reports. It is unclear how much of the illegal meat slipped in undetected.
The problem is about to get worse as the Chinese gear up to legally export poultry that, if not properly processed, could be infected with salmonella and everyone’s favorite side dish, bird flu…
(Photo: darinmarshall)
Last year the USDA began to legalize the import of Chinese meat. Chickens can now be grown in the U.S., slaughtered in the U.S., shipped to China for “processing,” and then shipped back to the U.S. for human consumption. The rule was approved last April, coincidentally, the day before Chinese President Hu Jintao arrived on a state visit to Washington.
That rule is just the first step towards China’s true aspiration: to grow, kill, and ship homegrown Chinese chickens to the U.S. If we don’t open our gullets wide to their poultry, they won’t lift their four-year-old ban on U.S. beef. More frightening:
…permission for China to sell poultry to the United States is moving ahead because recent USDA audits found China’s poultry slaughterhouses to be equivalent to those here.Tony Corbo, a lobbyist for Food and Water Watch, a Washington advocacy group, said that finding — which is not subject to outside review — is unbelievable, given repeated findings of unsanitary conditions at China’s chicken slaughterhouses. Corbo said he has seen some of those audits. “Everyone who has seen them was grossed out,” he said.
There is little we can do; economic realities make Americans subjects of China’s lax food safety regime.
China controls 80 percent of the world’s production of ascorbic acid, for example, a valuable preservative that is ubiquitous in processed and other foods. Only one producer remains in the United States, Hubbard said.“That’s true of a lot of ingredients,” he said, including the wheat gluten that was initially thought to be the cause of the pet deaths. Virtually none of it is made in the United States, because the Chinese sell it for less than it would cost U.S. manufacturers to make it.
The full article is well worth a read, as are the FDA refusal reports – but only after you’ve eaten. — CAREY GREENBERG-BERGER
Tainted Chinese Imports Common [Washington Post]
Refusal Actions by FDA as Recorded in Operational and Administrative System for Import Support for China (Mainland) [FDA]
More From Consumerist
-
UPS Doesn’t Offer “Insurance,” Even If An Employee Tells You It Does
-
A Rodent In Sheep’s Clothing? China Cracks Down On Crime Ring Selling Rat As Mutton
-
Hacker Gets 41 Months In Prison For iPad Data Breach
-
FDA: We Can't Prove Chinese Jerky Killed Hundreds Of Dogs, But Maybe Avoid It Anyway
-
Man Keeps Track Of Meals At 6,297 Different Chinese Restaurants Because Why Not?
@AngryBlueMan: Two words: Farm Bill.
Our national ag policy has seriously perverse incentives built into it. Basically we pay our nation’s farmers to grow high fructose corn syrup. It is often substantially cheaper to buy asparagus from China than to even GROW YOUR OWN. (Yeah, I don’t actually even know if they grow asparagus in China. Just an example.)
One problem that’s difficult to fix is that for us to export foodstuffs, we have to allow import from the same countries, so it’s much cheaper to buy imported cane sugar from plantations (that flirt with slave labor) than to buy beet sugar grown in the U.S., largely BECAUSE third-world countries can undercut wages and cost-of-living so much.
But I really think we should make national food independence a priority. The state of our food supply and our agricultural infrastructure terrifies me.
@Eyebrows McGee: Wood back at you. Used to be that food security was considered an integral part of national security. Somewhere along the line we replaced food security with oil security and not even all that much of it.
But, as with poptart lady, more people are interested in making sure they never have to make a hard choice than in covering even the basics for larger numbers of people. I read someone somewhere recently wondering if people were smarter than yeast – that is, would people get smart and stop producing toxins until every last person is dead. It’s so saddening to realize more and more every day that, no, people are *not* smarter than yeast.
@GirlGoneRiled:
Uh, that’s “woot” back at you.
Dumber than yeast be I.
I’ve always been curious as to why nearly all of China’s products are just plain crap. Seriously, how do you screw up surgical gloves? Isn’t the production process completely automated? How can anyone knowingly have their life’s work be garbage?
Well, if these products were really that bad, there wouldn’t be 1.3 billion Chinese would there. I think we are simply too fastidious and easilt grossed out. This is how you get low Wal-Mart prices, there is no other way. You can have low prices (for now, until China reaches Western wealth standards) or high quality, not both.
Guess I just started shleping to Whole Foods a whole lot more often.
Can’t believe how disturbing all this is…
Worst of all is even if you read labels, you don’t know where the ingredients are coming from.
And if you eat out… ai ai ai…
@Scazza: I wasn’t going to be a spelling anal retentive, but after 3+ uses of it…
Many = a lot (two words)
Allot (two Ls) = to distribute
To understand how this can came about there was an interesting story in The Economist that showed that in fact it can be cheaper, and greener to eat lamb from New Zealand in Great Britain than from England because of the efficiencies of the supply chain. No mention if the food could be crap though:
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2223bc2e-f14c-11db-838b-000b5df106…
Also, to illustrate how crazy this can be, I work for a Danish shipping line. What are the Danes known for, Butter Cookies, where are the “Danish Butter Cookies” made we give away (about 200K tins a year), China.
In regards to shopping at places like Whole Foods…
I have a bag of “365 Organic – Everyday Value” frozen “Organic Vegetable Blend” in front of me right now. On the back, under the Texas address for Whole Foods, and under the emblems of the various organizations that certify these veggies as organic, in small print are these words: “PRODUCT OF CHINA”. (Their all-caps, not mine.)
While I liek Whole Foods, I do not believe that they inspect every shipment or spot check veggies for non-organic-certified contaminates. They are just as subject to getting swindled as everyone else, and it will be their trusting customers who suffer if it happens.
Chris Knight
@bunnyfoofoo:
As an American asian of chinese ancestry, I think you’re just being a whiny, ignorant toddler. The race card is a joker in the deck, and jokers aren’t wild.
I don’t think this has anything to do with “a few bad people.” This is about a culture whose primary underlying goal is to do everything and anything to make a dollar. Those who become ill or die as a result are simply insignificant casualties and are of no concern. The United States is on its way to this unfortunate end by china’s hands. I hope you aren’t immature enough to believe that only “a few” people deal in this sort of deception. It’s an entire nation of competing businesses staffed by workers who subscribe to the aforementioned opportunistic and myopic mindset. When the chinese government “cracks down” on dishonest subjects as a token of good faith to their American counterparts, others rush in to fill the void.
Consumerist is addressing the situation with buzzwords and adjectives they would use for any other UNSCRUPULOUS business, which sufficiently describes these chinese merchants and their corrupt government as a whole. When items that would otherwise be subject to high inspection standards (i.e. beef) are deliberately mislabeled to avoid scrutiny, diethylene glycol is labeled as “glycerin” because it’s a cheap but deadly replacement and 100 people die, and melamine tainted livestock feed threatens our existence the words DECEPTIVE and INFERIOR come to my mind. But Consumerist is nicer than me.
@GirlGoneRiled:
Exactly. The “terror” we fear is the devil inside.
Here’s a tip, people.
The market supplies the consumer(ist) with what it wants – unfortunately the American public wants, no, demands the cheapest possible goods, and forces producers to supply them. In order to do so corners must be cut. It’s a race to the bottom and the finish line is in sight.
For years the Japanese have had a method of dealing with shoddy (or competing)food products snet to their shores. They simply impounded said fresh prouce for “Inspection” until it was no longer fit to use and then rejected it. Sounds like we could learn something from our trading partners (actually competitors).
@bunnyfoofoo:
This is what China is doing to Taiwan. The Chinese government purposely allow the export of all kind of cheap, poison craps (food, cloth, illegal immigrants, bird flus, SARS, everything) to Taiwan, in the purpose to ruin Taiwan’s economic, health environment, society. I wouldn’t say it’s just “a few” Chinese doing this. It definitely look like the Chinese government is behind this. And there isn’t much Taiwan can do about it. Why? Becuase just like the U.S., no country is able to inspect every single one of the import goods.
@szamot:
“Diverting the 5th fleet to bomb all burger factories in China — we will save you from these terrorist burgers and chips and pop you just sit on your fat ass on the sofa and think up new ways to blame other people for your problems – say like a luck of independent thought, which now makes you your own terrorist for sabotaging your own well being.”
Oh that’s great!! You just gave me a much needed laugh..
It’s funny how some folks completely miss sarcastic remarks…they get all upset over a joke thinking it’s real, which is waaay funnier.
@nut on two wheels,
Thanks for the personal attack. I shall also call you a whiny, ignorant toddler. Also thank you for the clever metaphor involving joker race cards, it manages to mix two cliches in a shallow and delightfully puzzling fashion. Now that that’s out of the way, I shall only reiterate the following two points. If you want to present a serious argument regarding global commerce, you may want to:
1. Watch your generalizations. Don’t mix up people and their governments, and don’t mix up businesses and their workers.
2. Be wary that terms like “deceptive” and, uh, “inferior” tread dangerously close to age-old stereotypes that intelligent people have long since dismissed. If you have clear points to make regarding the failures of China’s government and corporations, then make them. You may, however, want to incorporate some balance and nuance into your points; rushing to the convenient stereotypes can make you seem foolish.
Out like trout.
You get what you pay for …
Imagine selling that gas-hog SUV, that ridiculous gigantic TV with 300 channels, the tanning bed in your basement, and giving up WalMart shopping sprees: you’d have plenty of money to buy organic, local food for the rest of your lives…
Boo-hoo. It’s buyer beware, and if one is literate, then the burden is on the literate to read, think, and choose appropriately… although that didn’t work out so well in the last two presidential elections… oh forget it, we’re all screwed. By the time anyone figures out how they were poisoned by the Chinese, my mad cow disease will have taken hold and a ‘nuculer’ holocaust will have left only cockroaches, brown recluse spiders, and republicans to pick through the rubble.
the problem with locally grown food is finding laborers to work the fields. from conversation with local organic farms, you would need to pay $20-$30 per hour for farm help (hey, field work is hot and hard labor). this translates to a 3x to 6x food price increase. can you afford for your food bill to jump that much? you probably could if you ditched cell phones, high speed internet and cable.
as for Chinese behavior, they are acting the way any good capitalist would. externalize all possible costs onto others and evade responsibility as long as possible. see Upton Sinclair’s “The Jungle”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Jungle
Labeling food as non-food in order to get past inspectors is definitely “deceptive”, and food that KILLS people and animals certainly sounds “inferior” to me. And neither word has anything to do with ethcnic stereotypes.
So, aren’t money and profits an ideal of the capitalist pigs? If so, why is China so willing to accept ours?
@szamot:
Hear, hear. And it’s also not comforting to know that said chicken sits on a ship for four weeks traveling out there, then another four weeks traveling back, not counting processing time…
The tone of this post is scary.
We need to make 1 thing really clear. If there were no buyers in US, there will be no suppliers. The law of economics is Supply and Demand. I believe that China wants to import to US because there is clear profit. However, they do have their own people to feed. There are probably many other nations that would welcome their imports too.
We need to remember that China imported to US because many big US companies think that it is cost saving and economical to buy from China. “Global supply Chain” is what is always talked about in every operational meeting in big companies. Take a look at Walmart, Home Depot where the main supplier now is their own private branded goods from China.
The reason why there are goods from China is because a company wants to make a BIGGER profit than what they are used to. Because they want to increase the profits when their sales are down. There are many reasons.
The best part about everything is that the companies are the one making the money, while the government, and consquently, the taxpayers are the one paying the dues.
@LearningForever:
The thing is, China practically *owns* us. Remember in the 80s when Japanese businessmen were buying up apartments in big cities and golf courses all over the country? People here went nuts about “losing” sovereign land to ‘dem furriners.
Just a few years later, though, China began buying up US debt and currency. No one said a word about their buying spree because it helped us get all the cheap crap we wanted. But now, we do anything at all that they don’t like and they can tank our economy faster than it takes to run through a McD’s drivethru.
China’s holding the puppet strings, and all we can do now is dance.
@GirlGoneRiled:
I sort of agree that China practically “Owns” a lot of the US economy. However, remember that these imports come into a US port because some company in US bought them from China. These companies definitely have the obligation to have proper procedures in place to inspect the goods that belong to them. (not just when the goods are at the port of entry, but also at different stages of the chain)
However, because there is no stict rules in place, these companies can chose to neglect inspection, they let their quality control slip.
When things are ok and not ok, these companies are the ones pocketing the profit. When something goes terribly wrong, the blame goes to the government or the FDA or USDA for not inspecting enough.
What happens next. The agencies need to find more $$ to sponser the labor increase. They increase the tax WE have to pay, they cut corners on other departments that needs the money etc. But the original companies will stil make a BIGGER profit.
I am not saying that it is all these companies fault. What I am saying is that they need to be more responsible to the effects of their methods on the US economy and health.
(p.s. Do not shit where you eat. I wonder how many of these CEOs, high level executives really eat the food that is imported from Overaseas. For all we know, the food that they eat are all LOCAL and ORGANIC)
We as the consumers have the power to stop this by not spending money on Chinese goods. Let’s start from this second, be conscience and careful with every single little thing we buy, and let the big corporation know that we will not tolerate this!
Chinese groceries come from not only China. Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, USA, and Canada have factories making Chinese condiments and farms growing Chinese vegetables.
Together we can stop the evil big corporations from treating us like nothing.
bunnyfoofoo, you state as an asian-American you find certain words and or phrases borderline. Have you ever lived in China? Do you really know the Chinese culture? And not the immigrant culture of America who have now been here for several generations and have been greatly assimilated. So please stop your caterwauling.
Thank you for your support1
Based upon the FDA OASIS list ( http://www.fda.gov/ora/oasis/ora_ref_cntry.html ) it appears that India is also getting their fair bit of poison into our food supply.
India and China seem to be jockeying for the “winning” position over the last few months. I suspect it’s the same quality of government, regulatory quality and irresponsible misconduct.
Homeland Stupidity looks at the heckuva job FEMA’s still doing; T-Sides gets loud and heavy, then adds a couple more versions of “These Days” to the pile; Ickmusic has a killer boot two-fer: Live Petty & The Heartbreakers (1980) and live Miles Davis (1971); Consumerist looks…
@Brutuslebee:
I’m glad that you’re worldly and discerning enough to separate Asian-Americans from “real” Chinese people, and that you are in fact the arbiter of what Chinese immigrants should think and espouse when it comes to matters concerning China.
Oh, and if some Chinese food scare ever hits the states and (God forbid) some folks end up hospitalized or killed, let’s hope that the generalizations employed by the Consumerist and others in the comments page don’t cloud or muddle your ability to discern and adjudicate amongst the slanty-eyed and yellow-skinned inhabitants of our American society!
Tell me what to think, oh wise masters!
Usthathunt; bunnyfoofoo, you should have added the letter ‘L’ at the end of foo foo . your wishy washey words don’t really face the reality or the seriousness of the situation . Chinas growing food problems is a chefs nightmare . Erecting chicken cages over their fish ponds so that the droppings fall in the water to feed their talapia , catfish ,turbot ,etc. is crazy . also using human feces to fertilize their crops doesn’t set well with me . over 4000 cats & dogs died from liver problems associated with chinas pet food . Sorry , did i say FOOD . I hope that everyone avoids food and other products made in china . I certainly do . Most of this garbage is being sold at WALMARTS .
BY; USTHATHUNT; Buyer beware . About nine months ago I purchased a Dell computer along with the fax,scanner & printer . I had constant trouble with the fax , kept jamming up the paper so I called the sales dept. at Dell’s to complain . They admitted they were having problems with that item . They sent me a prepaid shipping label & I returned it. That same day I encountered many problems with the computer . Tech Support is from India . I wasn’t able to converse with them because I could not understand half of what they were saying. I called them 12 times in ten days trying to retify the problems, to no avail . My address book would disappear , pop up blockers were a nightmare , screen turned white , everything imaginable happened . Even my keyboard had about ten charactors that failed to work . couldn’t even send or receive e-mails . Finally I called Dell sales and told them about the many problems I was having with Tech Support & the computer and that I was going to send it back . The lady at Dell told me that if I was going to return the computer , keyboard & screen that I owed Dell an additional $239.00 . I said what for ? She said I would have to pay them to get it fixed & that they would then have to sell it ” AS USED ” She also told me that I would be required to pay for shipping costs . I asked her what kind of warranty they had with this product . She told me that after twenty days that I would have to KEEP everything . I told her that this product was defective since day one and that I wasn’t going to pay no $239.00 . Also I only had this computer for ten days — not twenty days . Finally , she transferred me to another dept. for returned items . I had to pay for shipping it back ( $41.00). You guessed it , Dell is made in China ( by no doubt 12 & 13 year olds that know nothing about these products). What a disaster .They apparantly have no quality control over there . I had my new computer custom made here in the states for approximately $200.00 more . Money well spent .I have had this one for eight months now & never had a problem .
@
href=”#c1512371″>ahwannabe: @
I think we should ban everything coming from china.
because not only are the foodstuffs they export unsafe. but so are medicines and toys and even some of their electronics.plus it would put jobs back in the hands of American citizens!
I am so angered at the companies that have taken their business production out of the USA and other countries that are up to environmental and safety codes and are now producing their goods in China and other regions that are not up to speed. In other words, not only have thousands of US companies abandoned their workers here, but they are now threatening the health of the very same people and all of the US and the Chinese workers in those plants. Honestly, moving production bases to China could have been an amazingly positive experience had factories and production lines been built ‘green’, sustainable and long term worker friendly. Instead our business men pressed for years for extensions on getting up to environmental code in this country and instead of complying used that extra time to go over to China. Now we have cheap and deadly products so that they can increase the small pyramid of profit for their stockholders. What’s the solution? Personally, when ever I find a product that I used to buy is now made in China I write a letter explaining my disappointment and then I buy an alternative made in the US or I go without. China is not the main issue here, it is the companies both originators of China and the US that are employing these shady practices, hurting their own people and ours.