South Korean Poultry Approved for Sale in U.S. Despite Bird Flu Outbreak

[theHandpuppet]

http://ecowatch.com/2014/03/26/south-korea-poultry-approved-u-s-sale-bird-flu/
EcoWatch
South Korean Poultry Approved for Sale in U.S. Despite Bird Flu Outbreak
by John Deike March 26, 2014

On Wednesday, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) published a final rule that will allow the Republic of Korea to begin exporting poultry products to the U.S.

Most alarming is that Korean poultry flocks have become infected with various strains of avian influenza, prompting the Korean government to cull more than 11 million chickens and ducks in January in order to prevent the disease from spreading further. Recent reports have the disease afflicting other species and sickening dogs.

The rule becomes effective on May 27.

Food & Water Watch filed comments opposed to the rule when it was first proposed last January. In the comments, the environmental watchdog cited violations of U.S. food safety and inspection standards written by FSIS auditors who visited Korean poultry slaughter and processing facilities in 2008 and 2010.... MORE

[NYC_SKP]

1. Of course, these imported products will be clearly labeled as to their origin, right?

[goldent]

6. At least where I live, the origin of fresh meat/fish products is usually labeled

I'm not sure what the requirements are. I keep a very close eye on it.

[lunasun]

2. and processing in China too-. Buy local there are farm coops growing

http://www.foodsafetynews.com/2014/03/chicken-from-china-your-seafood-is-already-being-processed-there/#.UzQwJ1TbT2k

[theHandpuppet]

3. Folks out to be aware that a lot of pet food and treats...

... are processed overseas, too.

[SamKnause]

4. Thank you President Obama for signing

the Free Trade Deal with South Korea.

Thank you U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service.

Of course there will be no labeling required so we will not know where the chicken in our supermarkets come from.

The citizen's of the U.S. need to file a class action lawsuit against the U.S. government to stop this insanity.

[goldent]

5. I look at the origin of most food I buy

For the most part, I won't buy something from overseas that can be produced locally (at least in the US). So no Australian apples, no Spanish oranges, and especially no Chinese fish. I won't be buying Korean chicken because I can easily get locally produced chicken.

I have written to supermarket firms and asked - do you really expect people to buy farm-raised fish from China? To their credit, they replied and said "we understand your concern, and well, you have a choice."

I sent mail to a big frozen fish company because the country of origin was not on the box. I was pleased that they sent me a list of all of their fish and where it came from.

The problem is in restaurants - I've read where much of the fish served is from China and you have no-way of knowing. I've been sometimes eating fast-food fish on the Fridays of lent. Much of it is Alaskan pollack which is wild caught in the North Pacific between Alaska and Russia - which is fine with me.