Article

2007-05-03 -Short Attention Span Theater-

Chinese firm dodged inspection of pet food, U.S. says

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Posted by gorb 2007-05-03 01:28|| || Front Page|| [4 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 the latest clues that Chinese feed suppliers may have been intentionally disguising the contents of their goods.

I am shocked, shocked to find this sort of thing going on here! You mean that a Chinese supplier is substituting toxic ingredients for pure ones in order to save a paltry amount of money? This could never happen.

Target recalls made-in-China children's toys - Chinese supplier painted them with lead paint. This disaster was only stopped because the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission randomly tested it.

The Chinese will stubbornly stonewall any investigation, since they would lose face if their tactics were publically known. Don't look for any cooperation from anyone in China on this case.

Posted by gromky 2007-05-03 07:58|| 2007-05-03 07:58|| Front Page Top

#2 Que lawyers...

Posted by BrerRabbit 2007-05-03 08:29|| 2007-05-03 08:29|| Front Page Top

#3 China's agricultural exports to the United States??? And you thought Mad Cow Disease was scary? OK. But just make sure it's labelled as such before it gets to the supermarket shelf. If it says "Produce of China" any consumer with any common sense at all will leave it on the shelf. Hang the executives of any company that fail to label the stuff.

Posted by Ebbang Uluque6305 2007-05-03 15:01|| 2007-05-03 15:01|| Front Page Top

#4 Boy, this kind of thing just renews my confidence that terrorists have no way of sneaking things past our ports or into our food supply.

I'd worry much more about money-grubbing Chinese communists selling us tainted and sub-par goods. Vast quantities of them are entering the United States and have a greater potential for lethal consequences.

Wal-Mart recalls lead-laced baby bibs from China

The Illinois attorney general's office identified bibs sold between June 2004 to the end of March this year in Wal-Mart stores throughout the state. Tests there on three styles of the bibs tested positive for lead, at more than 600 parts per million, the state's standard for lead in children's products, said Robyn Ziegler, spokeswoman with the attorney general's office.

"It's a PVC product," Ziegler said. "The lead in that product makes the vinyl softer."

Wal-Mart's recall comes after a lawsuit over the bibs was filed by the Center for Environmental Health, based in Oakland, California. Alexa Engelman, a researcher there, said the center became aware of the bibs in September. Engelman said a report by an independent laboratory test contracted by the center showed that the bibs contained 16 times the amount of lead allowed in paint.
[emphasis added]

In other words, to save pennies on plasticizing agents, the Chinese manufacturer knowingly substituted a verified toxin and did so for years.

China's dismal track record merits a costly and intensive inspection protocol to put them on notice that lax internal enforcement is no longer an option. Pet deaths are just the beginning for us. Please try to remember that they caught Chinese fraudsters domestically marketing counterfeit baby formula which had no nutritional content. Chinese infants died because of this. Will it take the deaths of American citizens to finally drive stronger QC/QA barriers on Chinese goods?

Remember, the absence of costly government inspections and enforcement is what allows China to spend more on its military buildup. China cuts corners in innumerably similar ways and it all adds up to an unfair competitive edge. This is corruption on a massive scale and we are the ones who end up paying for it. Quite possibly with our very lives.

Posted by Zenster">Zenster 2007-05-03 15:12|| 2007-05-03 15:12|| Front Page Top

#5 Not my life, I stopped eating pet food.

Posted by wxjames 2007-05-03 17:40|| 2007-05-03 17:40|| Front Page Top

#6 Check the labels on your canned mushrooms, tea, dates, bamboo shoots, water chestnuts, baby corn, pineapple, shelled nuts, frozen pot stickers, soy sauce, tofu, ramen, cup-o-noodles, sesame oil, curry seasoning and a host of other Chinese food exports. Recently, tea leaves were found to contain high levels of lead because the processor had used a truck to roll over and crush the leaves, exposing them to automotive exhaust. Tainted catfish and crayfish, filthy plums and dates, the list is endless.

Domestic wheat gluten the sort used in pet food costs all of TEN CENTS more per pound more than the tainted Chinese crap. We need to reassess just how useful it is to do business with China.

Posted by Zenster">Zenster 2007-05-03 20:20|| 2007-05-03 20:20|| Front Page Top

#7 Zenster is right my boss's in-laws are involved in Hong Kong textiles. They were reps for a Japanese chemical company's textile dyes. all of a sudden they got an order for 200kg of a certain brown dye. The japs flew to HK since the sales for this brown dye worldwide was only a couple of kilos a year, what new use had someone found? Turns out a firm was using it to color tea. Needless to say this stuff was not safe for food use but it sure made cheap tea the right shade.

Posted by bruce 2007-05-03 20:52|| 2007-05-03 20:52|| Front Page Top

#8 Some more success stories for the avatars of grobalization.

Greed refashioned as immutable dialectic, science, majick, idolatry.

Posted by IT Insider 2007-05-03 23:06|| 2007-05-03 23:06|| Front Page Top

#9 Needless to say this stuff was not safe for food use but it sure made cheap tea the right shade.

Got that, folks?!?

Posted by Zenster">Zenster 2007-05-03 23:49|| 2007-05-03 23:49|| Front Page Top

23:58 RD
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