China Digital Times

China news tagged with: tainted food (9)

• Chinese Officials Dealing With New Pesticide Tainted Food Crop

  

  The use of the illegal pesticide isocarbophos has contaminated cowpeas in Hainan:

  Ignorance is being blamed for Hainan farmers’ use of the pesticide on a food crop. But local agriculture officials were reportedly angry over public disclosures by agriculture authorities in Wuhan over the tainted cowpeas from Hainan in the media, which caused some journalists to point out that no chances should be taken on the safety of the food supply.

  China’s Ministry of Agriculture issued a warning about the contaminated cowpeas after finding contamination on test samples from several areas in Hainan. It took action by issuing a three-month ban on the import of cowpeas from any region.

  In the meantime, agricultural authorities in Hainan have asked each region to strengthen its oversight of the use of pesticides by farmers to make sure they are not using banned substances.

  » Read more
  • March 3, 2010 1:27 PM

• Chinese Dairies to Compensate Melamine Victims

  

  State representatives have announced that the twenty-two dairy producers involved in the melamine scandal will be paying one-time compensation packages to the families of the approximately 300,000 children affected.

  “The enterprises offered to shoulder the compensation liability. By doing so, they hope to earn understanding and forgiveness of the families of the sickened children” the [Dairy Industry Association] said.

  As of November, 861 babies still remain in hospital.

  These dairy producers have also established a medical fund to assist the victims with future health problems.  To date, Chinese courts have still not allowed private law suits to be filed against the milk producers.

  In related news, Sanlu has been declared bankrupt, and the trials of six men accused of producing melamine began Friday.  Sanlu’s Chairwoman Tian Wenhua’s trial will begin next week.  For more information on the Sanlu Milk Scandal, see CDT’s past posts.

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  • December 27, 2008 11:12 AM

• Opinion: America’s Own Melamine Woes

  

  James E. McWilliams, in an op-ed in The New York Times, wonders how America can blast lax Chinese regulations over melamine found in its food supply when America is hardly melamine free itself:

  For all the outrage about Chinese melamine, what American consumers and government agencies have studiously failed to scrutinize is how much melamine has pervaded our own food system. In casting stones, we’ve forgotten that our own house has more than its share of exposed glass.

  To be sure, in China some food manufacturers deliberately added melamine to products to increase profits. Makers of baby formula, for example, watered down their product, lowering the amount of protein and nutrients, then added melamine, which is cheap and fools tests measuring protein levels.

  But melamine is also integral to the material life of any industrialized society. It’s a common ingredient in cleaning products, waterproof plywood, plastic compounds, cement, ink and fire-retardant paint. Chemical plants throughout the United States produce millions of pounds of melamine a year.

  Given the pervasiveness of melamine, it’s always possible that trace elements will end up in food.

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  • November 17, 2008 10:03 PM

• Wen Hui Po: US Fans Flames of Problematic Pet Food, China Denies Toxic Exports

  

  Excerpts from an April 9, 2007, Wenhui Daily article shed light on the spin the Chinese official media put on last year’s food safety reporting by US media outlets, translated by CDT:

  The newest development in the pet food scandal is that the US Senate plans to hold new hearings on how the FDA is handling the issue. Moreover, 20 other kinds of food have been slated for recall, bringing th total number of recalled pet products to 100, or 1% of the total market.

  The FDA is treading very carefully in its investigation to determine the nature of the toxic chemicals and their sources. Unfortunately, the probe is not yet over and already China has become the scapegoat. Preliminary examinations found that the suspect foods were contaminated with melamine, which originated in China. As China is a major source of production materials for pet foods, some hostile US media immediately blamed China, stirring up fear that the country is exporting toxic foods to the US. One Fox TV news anchor claimed that “China is exporting rat poison-contaminated pet foods into the US,” and called for Chinese exporters to be punished.

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  • September 17, 2008 9:26 PM

• China Gets Help With Food Industry

  

  Canada has been instrumental to China’s advances in food safety, but some experts question whether China can ever regulate all of the small-scale food producers. From the National Post:

  As the world frets about risky dog food, dumplings and other consumables from China, the Canadian government has been helping the Chinese try to better regulate their vast and troubled food industry, a federal official confirmed yesterday.

  Canadian experts have helped draft new food-safety laws touted recently by China, tutored scores of Chinese food-safety authorities and even developed the first training manual for meat inspectors in a country whose livestock output dwarfs that of Canada.

  The contract for the latest project, another round of risk-management training at a University of Ottawa institute, was tentatively issued this month. It is all part of a little-known, $20-million aid program run by Agriculture Canada.

  With one tainted-food crisis after another hitting China lately, the project launched in 2003 suddenly became an urgent priority for the Asian giant during recent months.

  » Read more
  • June 1, 2008 4:57 PM

• Relations between Old Foes Remain Fragile

  

  From the Financial Times:

  When 10 people in Japan became ill after eating pesticide-tainted gyoza dumplings made in China, the resulting furore among the Japanese public demonstrated how fragile relations were between the two countries.

  Even an attempt by both countries’ authorities to calm the situation through a joint investigation, which subsequently reached a stalemate, could not prevent the gyoza story from taking on a life of its own. Under public pressure, Japanese supermarkets, restaurants and school cafeterias withdrew Chinese produce. Imports of food from China, which account for 17 per cent of Japan’s external food purchases, fell by 20-30 per cent in the ensuing months.

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  • May 6, 2008 9:27 AM

• China Reports Big Rise in Food-Poisoning Deaths

  

  Deaths caused by food-poisoning in China increased by almost a third last year though the overall number of incidents dropped, according to the Health Ministry. The report comes as China continues to battle a series of scandals over product quality control–from contaminated medicines to tainted dumplings and pet feed. Reuters reports:

  A total of 258 people died from food poisoning last year, up a little under 32 percent on 2006, the ministry-published Health News said.

  There were also 11 cases in which more than 100 people fell ill from food poisoning, but a fall of just over a quarter in total incidents, it added.

  In all, 13,280 people fell sick, the report said.

  While providing no explanation for the figures, it said that most cases happened in the third quarter of the year.

  » Read more
  • March 3, 2008 12:07 PM

• Japan side ‘to blame’ for tainted foodstuffs

  

  A Chinese safety watchdog official confirmed the small amounts of pesticides found in meat buns sent to Japan. However, Chinese officials have also said that the contamination of frozen stuffed buns and friend pork rolls could have been caused by loopholes at two Japanese firms, which are subsidiaries of Nicky Foods Company based in Osaka, Japan.

  Japanese media already reported this week that the pesticide, methamidophos, was detected in the frozen steamed stuffed buns from China and phorate, also a pesticide, was found in Chinese-made fried pork rolls. Some frozen mackerel, shipped to Japan by a Chinese-based company, were also found to be contaminated. Although Chinese officials maintain the mackerel came from other countries. China Daily reports:

  The administration said the companies followed Japanese production procedures and standards, and were supervised by Japanese staff.

  “The contamination is likely to have been caused by loopholes in the producers’ purchase of raw materials such as vegetables,” it said, indicating the companies might have bought from suppliers other than designated export-oriented farms.

  Meanwhile, another AQSIQ (General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine) statement released on Friday said China had suspended all exports from the Shandong-based Wangyu Aquatic Food Company, whose mackerel products exported to Japan were allegedly contaminated with dichlorvos.

  However, it said the mackerel were originally caught in Denmark and all flavorings except salt were provided by the Japanese importer.

  Just yesterday, State Councilor Tang Jiaxuan tried to calm the growing tensions caused by tainted foods between the two countries as he expressed his sympathy towards those who fell ill from contaminated Chinese-made dumplings earlier this year saying that the incident was of “great importance” to the Chinese government.

  » Read more
  • February 22, 2008 10:11 PM

• Tainted Ginger’s Long Trip From China to U.S. Stores – Nicholas Zamiska and David Kesmodel

  

  Yet another item on the list of unwelcome “made in China” products. From Wall Street Journal:

  In July, two dozen Albertson’s grocery stores in California received a shipment of fresh ginger and put it on shelves. Several days later, state inspectors discovered that the ginger, which had been imported from China, contained a dangerous pesticide. State health officials warned Californians to avoid ginger grown in China.

  But while the tainted ginger’s country of origin was clear, the actual supplier — let alone the farm where it grew — was anything but. The path of this batch of ginger, some 8,000 miles around the world, shows how global supply chains have grown so long that some U.S. companies can’t be sure where the products they’re buying are made or grown — and without knowing the source of the product, it’s difficult to solve the problem. [Full Text]

  » Read more
  • November 19, 2007 4:04 PM

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