Chinese food & pharmaceuticals - consume at your peril?

[Uncle Festivus]

Ever tried to buy Australian made goods at the supermarket lately, while the amount of foodstuffs from China is on the rise? At least Australia has some standards for food, sounds like anything goes in China. Not only cheap & nasty, but could be bad for you as well?

Food and drug agency spokeswoman Yan acknowledged the agency's supervision remains unsatisfactory and that it has been slow to tackle the problem.

"China is a developing country and our supervision of food and drugs started quite late and our foundation for this work is weak, so we are not optimistic about the current food and drug safety situation," she said.
Fears abroad over Chinese-made drugs were sparked last year by the deaths of dozens of people in Panama who took medicine contaminated with diethylene glycol ”” a thickening agent used in antifreeze ”” imported from China. It was passed off as harmless glycerin.

In El Salvador, officials said Tuesday they have found a harmful substance in a shipment of 360 toothpaste tubes from China that were seized and held at the customs office. Gustavo Villatoro, El Salvador's customs director, said officials found large quantities of diethylene glycol in two different brands of toothpaste.

Chinese-made toothpaste containing diethylene glycol has been banned in North and South America and Asia, though there have been no reports of health problems stemming from the product. And two brands of toothpaste sold in Spain were pulled from the shelves after the substance was found, the European Union said Tuesday.

China has no guideline banning the chemical in toothpaste, and the government says it is harmless in small amounts.

In the United States and Canada, pet food containing Chinese wheat gluten tainted with the chemical melamine has been blamed for the deaths of dogs and cats. Since then, U.S. authorities have turned away or recalled toxic fish, juice containing unsafe color additives and popular toy trains decorated with lead paint.

The list of food scares within China over the past year includes drug-tainted fish, industrial dye used to color egg yolks red and pork tainted with a banned feed additive.

 

[CanOz]

Further to this on the same lines, just a bigger article....

Made in China: tainted food, fake drugs and dodgy paint
World's biggest exporter faces a global crisis of confidence as scandals grow over the quality of many of its goods.
The Guardian
July 5, 2007
Jonathan Watts in Beijing

A Chinese farmer with his harvest of catfish which he bred on his farm in China's eastern province of Zhejiang.

China is facing a global crisis of consumer confidence as the country's food safety watchdog acknowledged this week that almost a fifth of the domestic products it inspects fail to reach minimum standards. Following a number of contamination scandals in the US, the world's biggest exporter is struggling to prove that it can match quality with quantity.

In the first half of 2007, 19.1% of products made for domestic consumption were found to be substandard, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine said in a statement on Tuesday. Among products made by small firms, the failure rate was nearly 30%.

"These are not isolated cases," Han Yi, director of the administration's quality control and inspection department, told the state media. Underlining his concerns, officials said hundreds of bottles of fake human blood protein were found in hospitals and excessive amounts of additives and preservatives were detected in children's snacks.

The trust deficit is enormous and growing. Shi Ying, 50, a businesswoman, said she was so concerned about food safety that she found it difficult to shop. "I dare not eat farmed fish or meat because most are fed with growth pills or pumped with bad additives. I worry about vegetables in case they are tainted with pesticide. I even think twice about the water I drink because it might contain heavy metals."

Although Ms Shi lives in Shenzhen, one of China's most-advanced cities, she has started to grow her own vegetables, eat less meat and drink water only from respected bottled brands or the family well. When she does have to shop, she puts safety above patriotism.

"I think foreign food is less risky. Even though they are not as fresh, I trust products from the US, Europe and Japan because those countries protect their environments. Sometimes when I see foreigners blithely eating raw lettuce in Chinese restaurants, I worry for them."

While the worst violations are in the domestic market, the repercussions are felt beyond the country's borders. China fills the shelves of Wal-Mart, Tesco and Sainsbury's with low-price products. But as its world presence has grown, so have concerns about safety.

First, there was a mysterious spate of cat and dog deaths in the US this year that was later attributed to tainted pet food from China. Next, in the US and UK, came the recall of more than 1m Thomas & Friends toy trains coated with poisonous lead paint from China. Then, independence day fireworks were withdrawn in the US because of their dangerously unpredictable sense of direction.

Most of these scandals occurred in the US, where food safety is fast becoming a front in the trade war between the world's biggest consumer and producer.

"I think we have reached a point unfortunately where Made in China is now a warning label in the United States," said a Democratic senator, Richard Durbin, recently. The issue also topped the agenda of recent talks between the US treasury secretary, Henry Paulson, and the Chinese vice-premier, Wu Yi.

Other countries have also expressed concern. Last year Peter Mandelson, the EU trade commissioner, said that European customs officers had seized fake birth control pills and HIV drugs from China. According to Mr Mandelson, half the counterfeit goods found in the EU originate in China.

Japan has also called for higher safety standards, and Singapore, Australia, Panama and the Dominican Republic have recalled millions of tubes of Chinese-made toothpaste that allegedly contained dangerous levels of diethylene glycol, a toxin.

It remains unclear whether this represents a surge in the number of unsafe goods or simply wider coverage at a time of rising trade friction. But the threat to China's business is growing.

In an attempt to quell concerns, the government said yesterday it was drawing up new safety rules for oral care products. Beijing has also promised to revise its inspection system for other products. Last month, the government published its first five-year plan for improving food and drug safety. It closed 180 food factories in the first half of this year and seized tonnes of sweets, pickles, crackers and seafood tainted with formaldehyde, illegal dyes and industrial wax.

But the government also stands accused of reacting slowly to scandal rather than dealing with the root causes: a lack of trust in the safety standards of a country with a profit-first economic policy and a secretive, unaccountable political system.

Public confidence has not been helped by an official response that includes denial and scapegoating.

"I think it would be better if the media would stop playing up this issue," a foreign ministry spokesman, Qin Gang, said this week. Last month, the former head of China's food and drug agency, Zheng Xiaoyu, was sentenced to death for accepting 6.5m yuan (£425,000) in bribes from pharmaceutical companies to expedite the approval of new drugs.

Media reassurances are unconvincing. "More than 80% of China's products are up to standard," the Business Daily said yesterday. It was not meant ironically. This was a gain on the previous year.

Along with health and the environment, consumer safety has been one of the biggest victims of the rush to get rich. The domestic market has probably been affected more than international trade because export standards are higher than for goods sold in China. Last month, food inspectors said paraffin wax, dyes, formaldehyde and cancer-causing compounds were detected in food produced by unlicensed and small producers.

There have also been scandals related to fake or poorly made drugs. Last summer, 11 people were killed by antibiotics that contained diethylene glycol, an industrial toxin. In 2005, two boys in Guangdong province died from rabies after receiving bogus vaccinations. A year before, at least 50 babies in Anhui province died and more than 100 were malnourished after being fed fake milk formula, some of which had only 6% of the vitamins, minerals and protein needed for a growing infant.

Its interesting to note that this has all come out at a time when the US is running out of solutions to deal with China's trade surplus. Although its obvious to even those not living here that there are troubles, its amazing to see the timing and power of the mass media machine at work.

I feel bad for the millions of hard working Chinese that actually produce quality goods for export that will be tainted for years to come only for the quick buck of a minority of reckless business people.

Cheers,

 

[Clubsharer]

I still consider China as a 3rd world country when you take the life styles of the Chinese majority into account. Human life's in abundance over there and they don't value the life of others as they value their own lives. Money is the driving force over there and the various companies will stomp over every obsticle that blocks their path to profits. It's bad enough that every bit of clothing that I'm wearing's made in China, along with the computer that's sending this message. But when it comes to food stuffs the alarm bells must ring, and ring loud! I was at a supermarket where I grabbed a home branded twin pack of fruit in jelly. I was shocked to see that it was made in China. How do I know the water's not been in contact with sewerage, or worse still, laced with deadly chemicals. It may sound very harsh, I know. But over here with have very tough and strict health laws in food industry - that gives us all great comfidence. The laws we have over here do not apply in China, yet we're consuming their food, which has been proven to often contain more than what we expected.

 

[CanOz]

The laws we have over here do not apply in China, yet we're consuming their food, which has been proven to often contain more than what we expected.

The laws are tough enough, but the enforcement is loose, to say the least.

Thier acedemics that run the hygiene bureaus are certainly aiming to clean things up, but its such a big country. They are much tougher on exporters, but everybody had a price.

Cheers,

 

[gfresh]

Seems opportune to me.. I'm sure I, and many millions of Australian's have consumed Chinese food without issues.

I noticed a couple of days ago the penut butter I had on my toast in the mornings was made in China. Seemed to taste just the same as any other, it doesn't bother me too much.

Seems like a nice effort to discredit foreign goods to protect local interests.. not that it is a new thing.

How do I know the water's not been in contact with sewerage, or worse still, laced with deadly chemicals.

But it's not.. or people would be getting sick. Checks are also done on food sold here. The effects would already be obvious if it was a widespread problem, and the reputation of any of the major supermarkets would be torn to shreds if it was found to be a particular brand (usually noname), sold in a particular supermarket. There is commercial interest to protect consumers there.

 

[Temjin]

Ohhh, you have no idea how novel Chinese people are when it comes to making food with cheap, fake and harmful ingredients for the purpose of making a bit more money. (P.s: I'm a Chinese myself)

examples

- Fill up used water bottles with untreated tap waters and reseal them in the factory.
- Use chemical to simulate the colour and taste of soy sauce.
- Poke tiny holes into eggs and suck the content out and replace them with untreated tap waters.
- Make pork buns using cardboards treated with chemical.
- The list goes on...

 

[aldebaran3003]

Well there's more! Melamine in infant formula and liquid milk products from China. If you went to the Olympics, chances are you may have been consuming it yourself. This thing is going to snowball out of all proportion. The World Health Organisation is only focusing on China at the moment and are only just getting to where they export to such as South Africa, Singapore, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Yemen, Burundi and Gabon. Singapore has banned all imports of China's milk products. We don't even know if soy protein such as soy milk and soy powder is affected yet so it will be interesting to see if WHO tests soy products from China.

China has been carrying on this practice surrepitiously for many years and have only now been caught because babies should not have renal calculi. In 2007, cats and dogs were dying from food tainted with melamine in vegetable proteins imported from China. They should have realised then it wasn't the most astute practice.

I looked in my pantry for anything containing milk solids. My favourite coffee, Jarrah and the cheaper version by Coles contains milk solids. The package says it is manufactured from local and imported ingredients. I'd like to know which parts are imported and from where. Coffeemate (milk solids) is same as the stuff in Jarrah but Coffeemate is from Thailand. I have 10 items mainly powdered drinks like Swiss Miss or hot chocolate sitting on my benchtop that have milk solids and could be suspicious, including soy powder from......you guessed it.....CHINA. I haven't begun looking at my chocolate stores yet.

The point is that we don't know if we are affected here in our safe country of Australia because the huge multi-nationals are using cheap ingredients to widen the gap between expenditure and profits. That's how we end up with these sorts of travesties occuring. New Zealand's Fonterra which owns 43% of San Lu which is responsible for this disgrace, knew about for the scandal for 6 weeks before making public comment. Obviously it had mushroomed to a proportion they could not contain with 4 known infant deaths and 6200 and rising babies affected. You can bet though that the bigger the company, the bigger the cover up will be.

 

[deadset]

This is the moral wake up call, in case the child slaves in that brick factory wasn't enough.

They have to STOP saying, "Oh, this happens all the time" and start thinking, "this is unacceptable everytime".

I remember my Chinese gf didn't even have the slightest interest in the Pumpkin story, not one bit. That spoke volumes to me. If you mentioned Pumpkin, she wouldn't have the foggiest. They must have 100+ similar stories every year there, given the population size.

The cold hard truth doesn't have to be cold and hard anymore, they need a mindset change in a big way.

I could talk about this alot, I think they do actually realise there is a major attitude problem, but its so easy to slip into old ways and habits. Hopefully this problem will make more of them realise the value of honest open dealings and fairness. Once you get past the status thing, they do have funloving natures and do like peacefulness, there is plenty of hope.

With my gf in particular, its like the heart goes one way, the head another, the ego again another way, and cultural and family pressures as well.

 

[deadset]

"New Zealand's Fonterra which owns 43% of San Lu which is responsible for this disgrace, knew about for the scandal for 6 weeks before making public comment."

Yes, the boss in NZ was saying on TV that they could not get them to stop doing it. It's like there were too many fingers getting money on the side from this, and no doubt it'll involve local bureacrats.

 

[aldebaran3003]

It's like there were too many fingers getting money on the side from this, and no doubt it'll involve local bureacrats.

That's exactly what I find most reprehensible. Sure everyone is greedy to some extent, that's just the power of the Id but to what cost, what sacrifice, who's demise and what destruction is what defines us as human beings along the evolutionary ladder. 18 have been arrested but I can't help but wonder if that is to show the Western World (and markets) how civilised they are (since life is so cheap). There's also alot of buck passing and finger pointing and I guess there will be a few patsy's too.

 

[J.B.Nimble]

Well, I'm not looking forward to kidney stones... The epicentre of this little fiasco was just up the road from my home of the last couple of years, and I do like my cornies and milk in the morning... I used to search out NZ milk when I was living further south but eventually gave in to buying Meng Niu brand (tastes pretty good) and now I find they are one of the 22 companies affected. Hmmm...

I have some sympathy for Fonterra. They eventually managed to blow the whistle via the NZ Prime Minister... Their biggest mistake was in signing up to be junior partner in a JV. Not a terribly clever move. They had started doing some fairly smart things - establishing their own herd, etc, but control counts for a lot.

 

[johenmo]

Ever tried to buy Australian made goods at the supermarket lately, while the amount of foodstuffs from China is on the rise? At least Australia has some standards for food, sounds like anything goes in China. Not only cheap & nasty, but could be bad for you as well?

The above is from the original port. I've worked in various food industries for 25 yrs. The problem is multi-faceted. Two of the big problems are the supermarkets (SM) and the consumers. The SM want good margins (try 40%!) and don't care where they get them. If imports are cheaper, the so be it. We increased one of our products 13% in 2 years due to cost increases and one big SM raised the price 20%. And Aust companies do "trade spend" - paying discounts/charges etc to get the products on the shelf. The recent review was a farce - unit pricing is good but won't lower prices. The store discounts come from the manufacturer, not the SM.

Consumers - we want to pay less. In real terms food (until recently) has been a decreasing % of the family budget (go back 40 years). If we buy overseas products they'll be the big sellers and will push out local items. Store brands - many of them are overseas items. We don't need plasma TVs, etc etc but we do need food. We try to avoid store brands as much as possible and support brand names. Look at what people put in the trolley and see how much junk is there c.f. good food.

I came from a farm - wouldn't go farming now. Not worth the effort IMO.

 

[tadpole]

you can get a full list of australian made products on a supermarket
web site. i did this, and took the list with me shopping, determined to buy aussie made. on a $500 grocery bill i bought 2 items which were made in oz.
even having the list with me it was still too hard to buy aust made there is very little variety and it is very difficult to steer away from brands which i have been using for many years. unfortunately, it is not so easy to buy aust
made products.


tadpole

 

[nioka]

you can get a full list of australian made products on a supermarket
web site. i did this, and took the list with me shopping, determined to buy aussie made. on a $500 grocery bill i bought 2 items which were made in oz.
even having the list with me it was still too hard to buy aust made there is very little variety and it is very difficult to steer away from brands which i have been using for many years. unfortunately, it is not so easy to buy aust
made products.


tadpole

We have the same problem. I solve it by reading the label on packaged food. If it does not have made in aust I put it back on the shelf and not where it came from but on another shelf. That is to hint that it wasn't a satisfactory item for me. Tinned fruit is a good example.

The more people that do that the better for us all.

A better result is to grow your own. That gives great results.

 

[Uncle Festivus]

I take the SM's up on their so called quality guarantees - I take everything back if it's not 100% and get a refund. Last case in point was a case of a dozen tins of tomatoes from South Africa. The tins were unlined ie with plastic and the contents had basically rusted. Took the lot back for a refund.

Until the SM's start to take a hit to the bottom line for importing this rubbish it's going to continue - or until someone dies from it.

 

[Spanning Tree]

The Chinese simply have different standards. They do have standards and it is not a free-for-all. I read that the Chinese Government banned Pringles from America because Pringles contains the carcinogenic potassium bromide.

Many people believe that the US Food and Drug Administration is heavily influenced by lobbying from big companies. Many products legal in America and Australia are thought to be poisonous, including sodium nitrite found in sausages and other processed meat, which cause colorectal cancer. (Watch Red Meat Causes Cancer.) This study is backed up by the World Cancer Research Fund.

I am right now looking into the aspartame controversy. The results from research papers are mixed but I have read studies that show that aspartame causes cancer in lab rats.

Just because a particular food is made in Australia it doesn't mean much. You really have no idea what is happening behind factory walls. I have heard stories about processed meat falling on the dirty floor and then picked up again and put on the conveyor belt. I believe if you want to be safe the best thing to do is to grow your own food.

Ohhh, you have no idea how novel Chinese people are when it comes to making food with cheap, fake and harmful ingredients for the purpose of making a bit more money. (P.s: I'm a Chinese myself)

Sacrificing quality for the sake of profit is something only Chinese people do? I wish it were as simple as that because then I only have to avoid Chinese products. I know, however, that this is wishful thinking.

 

[johenmo]

I am right now looking into the aspartame controversy. The results from research papers are mixed but I have read studies that show that aspartame causes cancer in lab rats.

Aspartame - we keeps our kids off it until they are 18 and can make their own (dumb) decision to drink it. Having biochem background & in the food industry I am interested in this sort of thing. Aspartame approval by the FDA was not easy - some disagreemnt (DYOR). Long term use of many things artificial tend to have an effect.

Just because a particular food is made in Australia it doesn't mean much. You really have no idea what is happening behind factory walls. I have heard stories about processed meat falling on the dirty floor and then picked up again and put on the conveyor belt. I believe if you want to be safe the best thing to do is to grow your own food.

Be "afraid" of some food manufacturers, big and small. And some restaurant kitchens. So stay at home and grow your own!!! But seriously.... not all Oz companies are great, especially if they are under financial pressure. I am no longer a big fan of processed meats. But will eat some every now and then.

Bon appetite.

 

[aldebaran3003]

53, 000 babies affected, 100 critical and 4 dead. Absolute disgrace!!!

 

[aldebaran3003]

China is unscrupulous in it's business activities. Here's a recap of recent years:

*Lead in paint in children's toys.
*Phthalates in PVC toys responsible for cancer.
*Melamine in food in the US responsible for the deaths of many cats and dogs.
*Melamine in milk products killing children and thousands sick or in hospital.
*Orantutans and tigers with kidney stones from tainted Chinese milk.
*Just in the last 2 weeks: hexavalent chromium found in leather products (cheap knock offs) exported to Italy. You do remember the movie Erin Brockovich right? This stuff is a carcinogen.

Consequently I am now checking all products I buy or that my child has contact with and if they are from China into the bin they go.....not the recycle bin!!!