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| China-Japan-Koreas |
| It begins: China shuts 180 food factories for tainted product |
| 2007-06-27 |
| Recipient inspections and subsequent rejections must be causing pain. And this is a CNN report, so the lost face is very public indeed. China has closed 180 food factories after inspectors found industrial chemicals being used in products from candy to seafood, state media said Wednesday. The closures came amid a nationwide crackdown on shoddy and dangerous products launched in December that also uncovered use of recycled or expired food, the China Daily said. Formaldehyde, illegal dyes, and industrial wax were found being used to make candy, pickles, crackers and seafood, it said, citing Han Yi, an official with the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, which is responsible for food safety. "These are not isolated cases," Han, director of the administration's quality control and inspection department, was quoted as saying. Han's admission was significant because the administration has said in the past that safety violations were the work of a few rogue operators, a claim which is likely part of a strategy to protect China's billions of dollars (euros) of food exports. International concerns over China's food safety problems ballooned this year after high levels of toxins and industrial chemicals were found in exported products. Chinese-made toothpaste has been rejected by several countries in North and South America and Asia, while Chinese wheat gluten tainted with the chemical melamine was blamed for dog and cat deaths in North America. Other products turned away by U.S. inspectors include toxic monkfish, frozen eel and juice made with unsafe color additives. Han said most of the offending manufacturers were small, unlicensed food plants with fewer than 10 employees, and all had been shut down. China Daily said 75 percent of China's estimated 1 million food processing plants are small and privately owned. According to Han, the ongoing inspections are focusing on commonly consumed food such as meat, milk, beverages, soy sauce and cooking oil. Rural areas and the suburbs -- where standards are likely less strict -- are still considered key areas for inspectors, he said. Meanwhile, another regulating agency, China's State Administration for Industry and Commerce, said it closed 152,000 unlicensed food manufacturers and retailers last year for making fake and low-quality products. It also banned 15,000 tons of "unqualified food" from entering the market because it failed to meet national standards. |
| Posted by:trailing wife |
| #9 Just start destroying any shipments that come in and don't pass inspection. Or mark them in a way that's indelible, and if they show up a second time, then destroy them. |
| Posted by: Rob Crawford 2007-06-27 20:39 |
| #8 I got news for you guys, Mexico, and prolly a host of other countries are every bit as bad. Some may even be worse. Corruption is endimic, the value of human life has been reduced below profits. |
| Posted by: bigjim-ky 2007-06-27 18:06 |
| #7 180 out of 750,000. The problem's under control. |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2007-06-27 17:33 |
| #6 Zen: an outgrowth of the fastener debacle was a program called the Unapproved Parts Program; started by the only FAA Adminstrator in recent history to have any balls, Mary Schiavo (sic?) She riled too many fiefdoms and was canned; the program was renamed The Suspected Unapproved Parts Program. www.faa.gov will get you to the SUPP page. |
| Posted by: USN, Ret. 2007-06-27 17:31 |
| #5 Globalization is a bad idea! Fat cats riding in limo's and flying in Gulfstreams while we pay the price. These are the greedy idiots that own our elected representatives as well. Hmmm. Gives me an idea. |
| Posted by: Natural Law 2007-06-27 17:23 |
| #4 As long as there's a buck to be made, people will keep dying. See the big article today on U-Haul. The difference is, in America, you can take the bastards to court. In China? Forget it. |
| Posted by: gromky 2007-06-27 15:52 |
| #3 A really scary next step is that we have been and are expanding our outsourcing of commercial aircraft parts to China. The utter folly of this goes beyong all sanity. Counterfeit Grade 5 and 8 high-strength bolts—the kind used in aircraft and high reliability applications—has been an issue for over ten years. In 1995 these fakes began flooding the American market. Of "Asian" origin, one can only speculate at how many of them were knocked off in China. An excerpt from an article dealing with this published by the New Zealand Department of Building and Housing: In 1999 the US government enacted the Fastener Quality Act after defective and counterfeit fasteners caused the death of nearly 400 US citizens over 15 years. While all of these fasteners cannot be attributed solely to China, when combined with their theft of intellectual property, violation of copyrights, counterfeiting of consumer goods and incessant predation upon our corporate and military infrastructure, Beijing costs America untold BILLIONS per year. Few people—including our politicians—seem to understand how this is a hidden cost that makes inexpensive Chinese goods far more costly than they appear to be. This unseen markup is kept from public notice by manufacturers and politicians alike who continue to profit handsomely while victims within the ranks of consumers and industry take it in the shorts. China has yet to pay the piper for this institutionalized criminal theft. It is long past tea for them to be called on the carpet. How many more HUNDREDS of American will need to die at their hands before something is done? |
| Posted by: Zenster 2007-06-27 15:32 |
| #2 A really scary next step is that we have been and are expanding our outsourcing of commercial aircraft parts to China. while not making light of folks getting sick from this sh!t being imported, or injuries or deaths due to crappy tires, imaging the magnitude of disaster when an wide body comes apart at altitude due to this slop. |
| Posted by: USN, Ret. 2007-06-27 14:38 |
| #1 Any bets that equipment from those "closed" factories doesn't suddenly show up for installation at other plants that just happen to be owned by high ranking politburo political aparatchiks? One of the tainted wheat gluten production facilities approached by international inspectors was found stripped right down to the anchor bolts in its concrete floor. The lack of transparency in China renders nearly everything they do meaningless. It is impossible to divine the actual reason behind anything they do unless it is of a blatant nature. One of the few measures we will have is whether rejected shipments continue to show up for reentry a second or third time. Especially if those rejected shipments are from the factories owned by the politburo brass. Han said most of the offending manufacturers were small, unlicensed food plants with fewer than 10 employees, and all had been shut down. China Daily said 75 percent of China's estimated 1 million food processing plants are small and privately owned. This is not reassuring. Such small 10 person outfits are most likely not the ones who are shipping thousands of containers full of tainted product to the West. Sounds like more of the usual |
| Posted by: Zenster 2007-06-27 14:21 |