I personally would buy it in a heartbeat. China food products are not worth feeding to my dog.

Personally, I would happily pay more for food products that I can be assured aren't tainted with toxic waste, antibiotics to clean up the presence of same, or fake protein. There are a lot of people who don't care and will continue to be pleased with the least common Chinese-infested denominator. That's the beauty of market forces.

It'll be interesting to see how this all plays out - like the link states, it will probably be impossible or way too costly to completely eliminate Chinese ingredients.

But it sends the right message...

For instance, sorbic acid from China sells for about $1.30 per pound, including shipping, while stateside it would cost about $4.

Not sure if it affects the price of sorbic acid but increases in the cost of food might make the public aware of the way laws keep the prices of some foods high.

Thank God. I'd buy 2x in a heartbeat.

Amount saved using illegally labeled, hormone infested, toxic-laden Chinese crap: two cents

Price to keep Fluffy purring and Skippy yipping, with the boys healthy and cheerfully torturing the first two: priceless!

Seriously: a death penalty, corporate, commercial or real, on any company, US or foreign, that pulls this crap. For. Ever.

Oh, Shamen - the point about this whole saga is that of course they don't label:

"this food will kill you but is two cents cheaper".

Thus, "the beauty of market forces" is exposed as a fraud. There needs to be an open, communicative, dynamic market for market forces to apply.

I realize how tempting it is to use bromides, but try thinking first, okay?

great! it's about time that stateside food manufacturers have realized the importance of keeping their food safe.

i hope this isn't just a smokescreen & they actually enforce this, otherwise i could see a bunch of vendors merely charging more for foreign foodstuffs & claiming they purchased it here.

Um... American agribusiness products are already "hormone infested and toxic laden." This is a little like Lindsay asking Britney to please put on some panties.

this could be some kind of distraction from the other food recalls that originate from the good ole u s of a

Well, at least we have a USDA here. Using food from countries who don't have the same food quality laws that we have here should be an automatic violation of our own food quality laws.

But I would be happy just to have each ingredient that doesn't come from the US indicated on the label with its country of origin, so that I could make an informed buying decision. I'll absolutely pay more to get American food, because at least it'll be easier to sue the grower out of existence if he uses a pesticide that gives me a fatal disease.

I love the picture on this.

Fucking DENIED. I would pay more for pure American food any day.

Oh, and I buy Mission taco stuff all the time. And Tyson chicken.

@trai_dep: Thanks a bunch for your very pedantic advice but my "market forces" comment was made only in the context of consumers having the choice between cheaper products from China, or something else. Maybe something organic.

The labeling issue is an entirely different question. For example, there are a ton of products that contain hydrogenated fats but that doesn't stop most people from eating them.

The consumer bears some responsibility for being aware of what he's buying. I'm just thankful there are a couple of companies out there that are willing to ban product components from a country that taints its imports with weird shit and then lies about it. Otherwise, nobody would know.

Great picture.

The products with hydrogenated fats have to be labeled as such, and now they even have to report how many grams of trans fatty acids there are. Sure, people still eat trans fats. A donut company near me who sells boxed donuts to supermarkets has 7g of trans fat per donut, but every once in a while we still buy them.

We would never have known they had trans fats unless they'd been forced to label them. The same is true of foreign-sourced food. Market forces don't work when the guys on the supply side can keep information hidden from consumers.

@humorbot: yeah, but the nice thing about this (hopefully) is that once everyone gets all riled up about how the damned evil, yeller, commie AZIANZ(!!) are tainting our food supply and why the Hell are we going to take it anymore, it'll be a small lil' push to ask, "exactly why do we allow our meat processors to distribute shit-encrusted meat?"

Or, it being the USA, at least let's have labeling: shit-encrusted ground beef vs non-shit-encrusted ground beef. Let the market decide.

Little steps first. Let the masses get all riled up about the ferriners poisoning us, then turn the spotlight on those w/in. Heh.

PS: Shaman - sorry, my comment was too harsh, and I take it back (early morning, no coffee). Okay? :D

Awesome graphic.

When the dog food fiasco happened, is there anyone who didn't see this coming?

I don't think anyone will notice that their junk food is more expensive after they FORK OVER THEIR GODDAMN KIDNEY to fill their gas tank and pay off their medical bills.

Then again, you really should not be eating that shit anyway. Can you really poison twinkies any more than they are already designed to be?

We should not import any food products that don't come from our continent. (except fruit from Chile during the winter...those grapes are tasty)

@raindog: I'm not saying otherwise. Hydrogenated fats are an "acceptable" food ingredient. Antibiotics and melamine are not. So bravo to the companies that banned China.

soylent green?

well, that's the way the fortune-cookie crumbles.

Twinkies are already 100% American made. Or have you forgotten about the article on food subsidies and the farm bill which was posted on the Consumerist some time ago?

Anyways, this is a good move, as we can more or less depend on the FDA to ensure consumer safety. China's food and drug industries really, really, really need regulation, and hopefully this can spur that on.

It's good for the Chinese, too. The people, that is. I don't think anyone, anywhere, says, "Mmmm. Poisoned plastic byproducts in my food? Thanks!!"

Only one word comes to mind here: Monsanto

This what happens when we relinquish control of the food supply to the lowest priced country. There is something to be said for made in america and I would pay more (already at the gas pump) for a safer food supply, just don't eat our lettuce.

@raindog
"Well, at least we have a USDA here. Using food from countries who don't have the same food quality laws that we have here should be an automatic violation of our own food quality laws."

-->Isn't that what people say about importing drugs from Canada? I realize we're not exactly comparing apples to genetically modified hormone produced apples, but this is a global market place. What would really surprise me is Tyson's commitment to only use legal US workers. The stated their intent to do so, and the entire plant in Emporia, Ks shut down.

"But I would be happy just to have each ingredient that doesn't come from the US indicated on the label with its country of origin, so that I could make an informed buying decision. I'll absolutely pay more to get American food, because at least it'll be easier to sue the grower out of existence if he uses a pesticide that gives me a fatal disease."

-> Honestly, have you ever looked on a bottle of orange juice to see if it contained oranges from Brazil? Does that truly have an affect on your purchasing?