USDA approves import of chicken processed in China despite safety concerns Attach: - Forum Categories

Members Login

Post Info

TOPIC: USDA approves import of chicken processed in China despite safety concerns Attach:

jimhenry2000

Veteran Member

Status: Offline

Posts: 616

Date: Jan 9, 2014

USDA approves import of chicken processed in China despite safety concerns Attach:	Permalink

Despite the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s repeated warnings, the latest just this October, about Made-in-China jerky treats suspected of causing thousands of illnesses and deaths of American dogs and cats since 2007, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) gave approval for four Chinese poultry processors to import into the United States, thereby lifting a ban set to protect Americans against deadly avian influenza breakouts. The contaminated chicken jerky were recalled and blamed for 2,500 animal illnesses and more than 500 dogs’ deaths. The FDA later found falsified documents, mislabels, and import shortcuts. Samantha Olson reports for Medical Daily, Sept. 5, 2013, that the Chinese poultry processors will only be allowed to re-export heat-treated/cooked chicken that has been initially slaughtered in the U.S. or another country. In other words, the chickens are first slaughtered in the United States or another country like Mexico, then shipped to China where the dead chickens would be cooked, then shipped back to the United States to be sold to consumers! According to the USDA report, the audit that took place in March found China’s chicken plants were up to the same processing standard as those in the United States, which means that the products are “safe, wholesome, unadulterated, and properly labeled.” However, no USDA inspectors will be present in the Chinese processing plants, which means American consumers are not guaranteed that their chicken is being processed in safe and sanitary conditions. Just this year, bird flu infected nearly 30 people in China, which caused a temporary shutdown of wet markets and the possibility of a permanent ban on the sale of live poultry in Shanghai. After the human death toll in China rose to six earlier this year, 20,000 birds were euthanized as a precautionary measure. In addition to the contaminated chicken jerky treats for pets, China has aninfamous reputation as one of the world’s worst food safety offenders of pet and human food contaminated with pesticides, chemicals, and outright poisons. I compiled the following chronological list of Chinese food safety incidents from Wikipedia, which reads like a horror story: In 2003, small producers of Jinhua ham in China soaked their ham in the pesticide Dichlorvos. In 2004, hundreds of babies in China died from or suffered malnutrition from ingesting fake powdered milk that contained only 1-6% protein instead of the minimum national requirement of 10% protein. Also in 2004, at last 6 men died of alcohol poisoning in China after drinking fake liquor made from industrial alcohol and rice wine. Also in 2004, soy sauce manufactured in China and quietly exported to other countries were discovered to have been made with amino acid syrup (or powder) from human hair that had been gathered from salon, barbershop and hospitals around the country, mixed with condoms, used hospital cottons, used menstrual cycle pad, used syringe, etc. In response, the Chinese government banned production of soy sauce made from hair, but other carcinogens such as 3-MCPD remain. In 2006, Chinese officials discovered illegal amounts of chemicals in the turbot fish — of prohibited antibiotics, carcinogenic nitrofuran metabolites, and malachite green, which is a triarylmethane dye. Also in 2006, Greenpeace tested vegetables in two Hong Kong grocery stores and discovered that over 70% of their samples were covered in pesticide residue exceeding safe levels; some samples tested positive for illegal pesticides, such as DDT, HCH and Lindane. Nearly 80% of vegetables in these grocery stores originated from mainland China. In 2007, thousands of U.S. dogs and cats died or got sick from eating melamine-contaminated Made-in-China pet food. Also in 2007, a hundred Chinese manufacturers of stinky (or fermented) tofu were found to use a combination of sewage, slop, and Iron(II) sulfate to accelerate production and improve appearance of the tofu. In 2008, hundreds of Japanese fell ill after consuming Chinese-produced pork dumplings (jiaozi) tainted with the pesticides methamidophos, Dichlorvos and Parathion. Also in 2008, it was announced that the Whole Foods supermarket chain in the United States had been selling powdered gingerproduced in China, which was labeled as organic food, but when tested was found to contain the banned pesticide Aldicarb. The ginger had been mistakenly certified organic by Quality Assurance International, who relied on two Chinese certifiers because, under Chinese law, foreigners may not inspect Chinese farms. Also in 2008, an outbreak of kidney disease among Chinese babies occurred, due to baby formula contaminated by melamine. Six babies died and 294,000 were made sick by the tainted formula with 51,900 requiring hospitalization. The supplier of the milk, Sanlu Group, is a name brand and a major player in the industry in China. The company is said to have known of the problem for months, but claims the contaminant came from milk suppliers. Also in 2008, certain egg products produced by Hanwei Group were found to be contaminated with melamine. In 2009, tapioca pearls used for bubble tea were adulterated with macromolecular polymers, i.e., plastic, to “improve” their texture;steamed buns (mantou) contained the pesticide Dichlorvos (to “improve” chewiness and texture) and sulphur (to whiten the buns). Also in 2009, duck meat sold as lamb had been marinated in goat or sheep urine to give the duck the smell and taste of lamb; most of the pork blood pudding in Chinese markets contained little actual blood, but was manufactured with formaldehyde, corn starch, industrial grade salt, and artificial food coloring. In 2010 and ongoing, gutter oil — oil that has already been used and is then processed by cleaning and filtering — was/is resold as a cheaper alternative to normal cooking oil. The sources of gutter oil are restaurant fryers, sewers, and leftover or used oil sold by restaurants. A newer version of gutter oil uses discarded animal parts, animal fat, internal organs, and expired or otherwise low quality meat which is then cooked in large vats in order to extract the oil. In 2012, contaminated strawberries from China infected over 11,000 children in Germany with Norovirus. In 2013, the carcasses of over 15000 pigs were found drifting in Huangpu River, caused by a crack-down on illicit pig-trade. Local pork dealers had been buying up dead meat unfit for sale, processed it in illegal workshops, and then re-introduced the products into the legal market. Also in 2013, China’s Ministry of Public Security released a press statement warning Shanghai consumers of lamb meat that actually was either rat, fox or mink meat; six workshops in Shaanxi province were shut down for producing fake beef by mixing pork with paraffin wax and industrial salts; cats slaughtered at a “black” slaughterhouse near Shanghai were sold as rabbit meat. Also in 2013, Wenzhou police uncovered 10 underground mills that were using large amounts of chemical additives and coloring agents to clean out-of-date chicken drumsticks, wings and ducks’ headsprior re-selling them to public. Most recently, in August 2013, rice tainted with unsafe levels of the toxic cancer-causing metal, cadmium, was found in southern China. China’s purchase of iconic U.S. Smithfield Foods raises food safety questions China’s ownership of an iconic American food company Smithfield Foods, Inc. is the largest pork producer and processor in the United States. Founded in 1936 as the Smithfield Packing Company, Smithfield Foods, Inc. is headquartered in Smithfield, Virginia, with facilities in 26 U.S. states, including the largest slaughterhouse and meat-processing plant in the world, located in Tar Heel, North Carolina. It also has operations in Mexico and in 10 European countries, with a global total of over 46,000 employees and an annual revenue of $13 billion. China’s ownership of an iconic American food company By Frank J. Maduri, UPI Outside View Commentator \| Oct. 25, 2013 The recent acquisition of Smithfield Foods, Inc., by Chinese food producer Shuanghui International has left many Americans feeling concerned about the future of food safety. These feelings are heightened with the news that tainted dog treats from China have been linked to hundreds of animals dying from a mystery illness. The purchase of Smithfield was the largest Chinese investment in a U.S. company, with the deal valued at $7 billion, including $4 billion in cash. cash. Shuanghui will now have access to food science secrets that were proprietary to Smithfield Foods. It can use this technology to directly impact competition with other U.S. food companies. I spent seven years working in the food technology sector and I can attest that the proprietary technologies held by a respective company provide a strategic advantage over other companies in the industry. The genetics technology held by Smithfield Farms can be used by Shuanghui in China on its pigs, which would dramatically affect the export of U.S. pork to China, potentially decreasing it. Smithfield officials have maintained that they made this deal to increase the export of U.S. pork to China. The company has been very demonstrative about this operational imperative in order to allay the fears of the American public that Chinese pork would be imported for use in the Smithfield product line. However, Shuanghui is a huge conglomerate with several subsidiaries and is known throughout the food industry to have very loose management structure. In 2011, a Shuanghui subsidiary was caught putting a banned chemical into pig feed to make the animals leaner. It is this type of blatant sabotage of products and willingness of Chinese companies to cut corners that has U.S. consumers worried that will become the new order of business at Smithfield. Chinese companies have brought tainted dry wall, pet food and other food products into the United States in recent years. This deal has caused many Americans to question food safety policies especially in companies with foreign ownership. Many Americans called upon Congress and the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States to block this purchase of Smithfield Foods. Congress admitted that they couldn’t block the purchase of a U.S. company by a foreign entity unless it involved computers or national security. Some members of Congress were so concerned about the Smithfield acquisition that they are discussing in the U.S. Senate whether food security could fall within the national security umbrella. If that dialogue has traction and the law is revised, then the Senate could potentially block future purchases by foreign entities. The CFIUS reviewed and ultimately approved the transaction of Smithfield to Chinese ownership. Its decision raises the question: Is this the start of a trend where more Chinese companies are going to seek to obtain U.S. companies in the food industry? That trend of Chinese involvement in the U.S. food industry could have drastic implications on food safety. In my experience with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, I have found that the agency is overrun with responsibilities so it relies on voluntary compliance and not inspections or other methods of enforcing the food safety standards. The further involvement of Chinese food companies in the U.S. food marketplace also has the American public and the food industry concerned about the integrity of the supply chain. The Chinese reputation for degradation of products and disregard for the regulatory controls in the industry precedes them. The supply chain could very easily be compromised with more Chinese companies being integrated into the U.S. food industry. Shuanghui maintains that it was interested in obtaining Smithfield Foods to meet increased demand for pork products in China. This increased demand is being driven by their rising middle class coupled with the trend in China to move away from vegetables and rice toward a diet of increased protein consumption. Furthermore, Shuanghui has stated to the media that it needed to acquire a U.S. company with the technology to help them improve food safety in the pork products marketplace in China. The pork industry in China has had a number of very notable safety issues, including an incident in which dead pigs were dumped into a river near Shanghai. Food technology and safety protocols used by Smithfield are going to be integral for Shuanghui to expand its capability to meet the rising demand for pork in China. In the end, this deal could portend a future where China is forced to obtain other food companies in the United States and throughout the Western world because of the poor environmental conditions in China. These conditions, along with the tremendous demand of an enormous population, will be the impetus for China to seek outside help via the purchase of Western companies. This trend will probably alienate China on the international stage but the Chinese don’t have many other constructive pathways to address the issues in food safety that have plagued their country. The U.S. public has to have a constructive dialogue and determine how we can implement government safeguards to insulate the U.S. food industry from involvement from Chinese investment and ownership in the future. Brazil and New Zealand have safeguarded their agricultural systems from Chinese intervention and the United States has to consider similar safeguards. Our society and the future generations of Americans depend upon it. __________________ --- Jimmy the Butcher jhenry@airpower.com www.linkedin.com/in/jameshenry/ www.airpower.com

Page 1 of 1 sorted by

Tweet this page

Post to Digg

Post to Del.icio.us

Create your own FREE Forum
Report Abuse