Top Chinese manufacturing recalls

Actually, I would refrain from buying anything from China that is a food product, tires, and toys for children.

F.D.A. Curbs Sale of 5 Seafoods Farmed in China
June 29, 2007
F.D.A. Curbs Sale of 5 Seafoods Farmed in China
By ANDREW MARTIN
New York Times

In the latest move against Chinese imports, the Food and Drug Administration yesterday effectively blocked the sale of five types of farm-raised seafood from China because of repeated instances of contamination from unapproved animal drugs and food additives.

The F.D.A. said it decided to take the action after years of warnings and even a visit to Chinese fish ponds that resulted in no signs of improvement. But Dr. David Acheson, the F.D.A.'s assistant commissioner for food protection, stressed that the seafood posed no immediate health threat, though long-term consumption could result in health problems.

"There's been a continued pattern of violation with no signs of abatement," Dr. Acheson said.

The seafood announcement comes after a string of reports in recent months about Chinese imports that have failed to meet American health and safety standards: pet food ingredients, toothpaste, toy trains and tires.

The seafood move, however, may have the broadest impact on China, the world's biggest producer of farm-raised fish. The country is also the biggest foreign supplier of seafood to the United States, accounting for 22 percent of the total imports.

The seafood named in the F.D.A.'s "import alert" are shrimp; catfish; eel; basa, which are similar to catfish; and dace, similar to carp. Some of the contaminants cited have been found to cause cancer in laboratory animals, while others may increase antibiotic resistance. Under the import alert, the seafood can be sold in the United States only if importers provide independent testing that shows the seafood does not contain the contaminants.

Officials at the Chinese Embassy in Washington did not respond to messages seeking comment.

The announcement fueled concerns about both the integrity of Chinese products and the effectiveness of the American system for identifying contaminated food.

"The list continues to grow of Chinese imports that are dangerous to American consumers," said Senator Richard J. Durbin, Democrat of Illinois. "There reaches a point where I think it's clear, if China wants to live in the 21st century, then they have to produce to those standards."

After the F.D.A. announcement, Mr. Durbin and Representative Rosa L. DeLauro, Democrat of Connecticut, called on federal officials to establish a food safety agreement with China.

Ms. DeLauro, a frequent critic of the F.D.A.'s oversight of food safety, also questioned why the agency waited so long to act.

The banned substances, primarily antifungals and antibacterials, have been used by some Chinese farmers to prevent disease among their seafood. Because they are often crowded into ponds, farmed fish and shrimp can become sick as the quality of the water becomes polluted by waste and feed.

"You may have 10 to 20 times the density of fish as in a natural environment," said Robert P. Romaire, professor of aquaculture at Louisiana State University.

American regulators allow the use of a limited number of antibiotics. But Mr. Romaire said some of the Chinese farmers used antibiotics indiscriminately.

None of the antibiotics and food additives found in the Chinese seafood ?- nitrofuran, malachite green, gentian violet and fluoroquinolones ?- are on the approved list of regulators. Long-term exposure to nitrofuran, malachite green and gentian violet, which are also illegal in China, has been shown to cause cancer in laboratory animals.

Fluoroquinolones are allowed in Chinese aquaculture. Nevertheless, they are not permitted in fish in the United States because their use may increase antibiotic resistance for people.

The problems with contaminated Chinese seafood imports date back at least six years. Before this week, the F.D.A. had issued other, more narrow warnings about contaminated Chinese seafood beginning in 2001.

In the fall of 2006, F.D.A. officials went to China to inspect aquaculture operations and found "the residue control program ineffective." The agency increased its inspections of Chinese seafood, starting last October, and, officials said, found that 15 percent of the samples were contaminated.

China's seafood shipments to the United States were valued at $1.9 billion in 2006, a 193 percent increase over 2001, according to the Department of Agriculture. The biggest American imports from China are shrimp, tilapia, scallops, cod and pollock, federal statistics show, although only shrimp was affected by yesterday's announcement.

Several Southern states, which have their own catfish and shrimp-farming operations, have already blocked the sale of some Chinese seafood. Their rules say that the seafood can be sold only if it passes testing that proves it has no contaminants.

The state of Alabama announced its ban after testing found 14 of 20 samples contained fluoroquinolones. Mississippi officials found that 18 of 26 samples of Chinese catfish were contaminated with fluoroquinolones.

"We are saying all Chinese seafood that comes in here has to be tested prior to sale," said Bob Odom, Louisiana's agriculture and forestry commissioner. "The simple reason for that is we found a lot of it that is contaminated."

The F.D.A. maintains a database of imported products that are prevented from entering the United States because they do not comply with American standards. In May, for instance, the agency turned away 165 shipments from China, 49 of them seafood.

Monkfish was rejected for being filthy and unfit to be eaten, the records show. Frozen catfish nuggets were turned away because they contained animal drugs. Tilapia fillets were contaminated with salmonella.

The problems were even worse in April, when 257 shipments from China were rejected, including 68 of seafood. Frozen eel contained pesticides, frozen channel catfish had salmonella and frozen yellowfin steaks were filthy, the records show.

In a report on the F.D.A.'s oversight released in May, Food and Water Watch, a Washington-based nonprofit group, found that more than 60 percent of the seafood that was rejected at the border by the F.D.A. came from China.

The group's report also found that the percentage of seafood shipments that were pulled out for laboratory analysis declined in recent years, from 0.88 percent in 2003 to 0.59 percent in 2006. Over all, about 2 percent of seafood imported from 2003 to 2006 received either a sensory examination for color and smell or a more detailed laboratory analysis.

Of the seafood that was refused at the border, filth was the top listed reason and salmonella was second, with shrimp accounting for about half of those cases, the report found.

Of the shipments rejected for animal drug residues in 2006, 63 percent were from China, the report found. Vietnam ranked second in rejections for animal drug residue, 11 percent.

F.D.A. officials said yesterday, however, that the agency inspected a higher percentage of Chinese seafood imports ?- 5 percent ?- because of continuing concerns about farm-raised fish from that country.

The latest problem of products from China is their toothpaste. They have detected car coolant in it.

And this is the latest country to promise an eclipse of the American Empire?

1) Pollution
2) Corruption
3) Huge discrepancies between the haves and have nots
4) Inordinate spending on the military
5) Restrictions of personal liberties

These are the sins that so many assert signal the decline of the American Empire.

Guess what? China has them in spades PLUS widespread contamination of food products. When was the last time an America had a company which sold baby formula that actually killed babies? China recently has.

How long before "Made in China" invokes fear in the consumer nations that seek cheap sino-labor.

The Chinese have it worse, the ones that can afford it (those miserable "haves") are paying five times the cost of local products to get their food from import sources. "I am buying security." Says one Chinese. "We see food as we see the sky," says another "if food fails the sky falls."

If the USSR didn't prove it to us, China will. Only democratic capitalism, and all that it entails, can assure lasting power.

China Vows Food-Safety Changes
June 30, 2007
China Vows Food-Safety Changes
By DAVID BARBOZA
Nw York Times

GUANGZHOU, China, June 29 ?- A day after regulators in the United States placed a partial ban on imports of certain types of seafood from China, the Chinese government promised Friday to cooperate in tackling its food safety problems but urged a quick resolution.

In tones that were at times defiant, China pressed the United States to act promptly and fairly and cautioned that Chinese seafood products should not be "automatically held and rejected indiscriminately."

In a statement issued late Friday, China's top quality watchdog, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, acknowledged that there were safety problems with Chinese seafood exports but also said that it had found similar problems in food imported from the United States.

"Just like the U.S. imported food in China, there are quality problems with aquatic products that are exported to the U.S. by some Chinese enterprises," the government said in a statement posted on one of its Web sites. "China has cooperated and handled these problems properly."

The statement came after the Food and Drug Administration in the United States said Thursday that it would effectively block the sale of five types of farmed fish, including shrimp and catfish, unless independent testing proved that the goods were free of contamination.

China's sharp response to the restrictions in the United States sets the stage for what could be a high-stakes trade dispute over seafood, one of the fastest-growing segments of the global food market.

F.D.A. officials declined to comment on China's response.

China is already the world's biggest producer and exporter of seafood, and a growing portion of that is sent to the United States, which imports more than 80 percent of its seafood.

But China also has leverage because it is one of the largest importers of American grain, and its food market is increasingly enticing to big American corporations. Indeed, United States authorities are pressing China to lift a ban on American beef.

"If I were the Chinese I would not start a trade war over this," said Dermot Hayes, a professor of agricultural economics at Iowa State University. "They have a huge trade surplus with us, so it'd be like picking a fight with a rich grandmother. This is a problem that can easily be solved by scientists."

China has an increasingly poor track record of exporting tainted seafood products to the United States. Time and again over the last few years, Chinese seafood has tested positive for carcinogens and excessive antibiotic residues.

Chinese goods make up about 22 percent of United States seafood imports. But they accounted for about 63 percent of the shipments that were refused by the F.D.A. last year for having animal drug residues.

And early this year, the F.D.A. said it saw a spike in rejections of Chinese seafood products, particularly catfish, shrimp, eel, basa (which is related to catfish) and dace (which is like carp). Those five farm-fished products are facing new F.D.A. restrictions.

Growing concerns about tainted seafood have come after a string of recalls involving Chinese products as varied as pet food, toothpaste, toys and tires.

The recalls have alarmed members of Congress and American consumers and created an ugly side show to already tense trade relations between China and the United States.

China has insisted that its food is largely safe. But regulators here have also vowed to overhaul the country's food safety regulations and to step up inspections of exports. But American regulators have grown impatient.

To combat the safety problems involving imported Chinese seafood, the F.D.A. said Thursday that it planned to hold all shipments of the restricted seafood products unless they are proven to be safe. Until now, the F.D.A. has only done spot checks on those and other products, testing only a tiny fraction of food imports from China.

In its statement Friday, China said it was willing to cooperate with United States regulators and even proposed its own system of testing and certifying the quality of certain food exports.

Chinese regulators also said that they were "highly concerned" about food safety matters and were working to fix the problem involving tainted seafood exports.

But in striking back at American regulators, China insisted that food products made in the United States also had quality and safety problems. For instance, earlier this week, China rejected batches of orange pulp and apricots from the United Sates, contending that they contained mold, excessive amounts of bacteria and other contaminants.

Andrew Kaelin, managing director of AIS Aqua Foods, a seafood importer, said he thought that Chinese regulations were generally effective but were simply not enough to control the huge number of aquaculture producers. Consequently, he said, it was up to importers and processors to make sure the shipments were clean.

"We test all our shipments before they leave," he said, explaining that his company ships primarily Chinese scallops, calamari and tilapia to the United States. He said that Chinese regulators stopped a shipment of his that contained shrimp on Friday until he could provide the testing paperwork.

Stacey Viera, a spokeswoman for the National Fisheries Institute, which represents the American seafood industry, said that she expected the restricted Chinese seafood would continue to be sold in the United States. She said, however, that there might be a delay while importers set up testing procedures for the seafood, which may create a temporary problem for restaurants and stores.
-------------------------------------------

Andrew Martin contributed reporting from New York.

Some of this is harder than it seems. There was a thread earlier on a2k on the toothpaste issue. As I remember, not having the data at hand, some chinese company had shiped the so-called glycerin to Spain improperly labeled, that was bought - I think as a Spanish product - by (I forget whom) in Panama, and the Panamanian government then made the cold medicine(odd to me in itself). Point being, not every chinese import is labelled from China.

Next, some items in a lot of our products are primarily made in China. I saw a list recently, seem to remember citric acid. In my label reading, I see that all the time.. (not that anyone has found a problem with citric acid just yet.)

Here's the a2k link to the article Miller posted that has some of the complications explained:
http://www.able2know.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=2644903&highlight=toothpaste#2644903

China Finds Kids' Snacks Substandard
China Finds Kids' Snacks Substandard
ANITA CHANG
July 3, 2007

BEIJING ?- Chinese inspectors found excessive amounts of additives and preservatives in dozens of children's snacks and seized hundreds of bottles of fake human blood protein from hospitals, officials said Tuesday.

China's dismal health and safety record _ both within and outside its borders _ has increasingly come under the spotlight as its goods make their way to global markets. Major buyers like the United States, Japan, and the European Union have pushed Beijing to improve inspections.

China accused the media of hyping the problems.

"I think it would be better if the media would stop playing up this issue," Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang told reporters.

"China has taken measures and enacted relevant legislation regarding inspection and monitoring of its food export process. China has been very responsible in this regard to ensure the good quality and safety of its exports," he said.

Inspectors in southwest China's Guangxi region found excessive additives and preservatives in nearly 40 percent of 100 children's snacks sampled during the second quarter of 2007, according to a report on China's central government Web site.

The snacks _ including soft drinks, candied fruits, gelatin desserts and some types of crackers _ were taken from 70 supermarkets, department stores and wholesale markets in seven cities in the region, it said.

Only 35 percent of gelatin desserts sampled met food standards, the report said, while two types of candied fruit contained 63 times the permitted amount of artificial sweetener.

The report did not say whether any snacks were recalled or if any manufacturers faced discipline. Calls to the Guangxi Industrial and Commercial bureau rang unanswered Tuesday.

Some 420 bottles of fake blood protein, albumin, were found at hospitals in Hubei province but none had been used to treat patients, Liu Jinai, an official with the inspection division of the provincial food and drug administration, said in a telephone interview. No deaths or illnesses were reported.

A shortage of albumin triggered a nationwide investigation in March into whether fakes were being sold.

A state media report last month centered on an inquiry in the northeastern province of Jilin, where 59 hospitals and pharmacies sold more than 2,000 bottles of counterfeit blood protein. One person died from use of the fakes, state media said.

Albumin is a primary protein in human plasma that is important in maintaining blood volume. It is used to treat conditions including shock, burns, liver failure and pancreatitis, and is needed by patients undergoing heart surgery.

Chinese authorities have struggled with recalls following the widespread sale of fake polio vaccines, vitamins and baby formula. Such incidents threaten both public health and faith in the government's ability to control crime and corruption and ensure safety of food and drug supplies.

In May, the country's former top drug regulator was sentenced to death for taking bribes to approve substandard medicines, including an antibiotic blamed for at least 10 deaths.

Fears that China's chronic food safety problems were going global surfaced earlier this year with the deaths of dogs and cats in North America blamed on Chinese wheat gluten tainted with the chemical melamine.

U.S. authorities have also turned away or recalled toxic fish, juice containing unsafe color additives and popular toy trains decorated with leaded paint. Chinese-made toothpaste has also been banned by numerous countries in North and South America and Asia for containing diethylene glycol, or DEG, a toxic ingredient more commonly found in antifreeze.

Beijing has striven to appear active in cleaning up problem areas. Inspectors recently announced they had closed 180 food factories in China in the first half of this year and seized tons of candy, pickles, crackers and seafood tainted with formaldehyde, illegal dyes and industrial wax.