An Export Boom Suddenly Facing a Quality Crisis (China)

[RamboLiberal]

Source: NY Times

Weeks after tainted Chinese pet food ingredients killed and sickened thousands of dogs and cats in the United States, this country is facing growing international pressure to prove that its food exports are safe to eat.

But simmering beneath the surface is a thornier problem that worries Chinese officials: how to assure the world that this is not a nation of counterfeits and that “Made in China” means well made.

Already, the contamination has produced one of the largest pet food recalls in American history, heightening global fears about the quality and safety of China’s agricultural products. And evidence has also shown that China exported fake drug ingredients, threatening to undermine the credibility of another booming export.

“This isn’t an international crisis yet, but if they don’t do something about it quickly, it will be,” said David Zweig, a China specialist who teaches at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. “The question is whether it spills over and ‘Made in China’ becomes known as ‘Buyer Beware.’ ”

With contamination known to have spread to feed for livestock and fish, some of America’s biggest food companies, like Kraft Foods, are lobbying the United States government to press China to improve its food safety measures.



Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/18/business/worldbusiness/18trade.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

[Endangered Specie]

1. Well shoot if your gonna pay someone a buck-fifty a day to make dog food...

don't expcect to much QC

[msongs]

2. how about Kraft Foods improving its OWN safety measures??? nt

[laheina]

3. They are worried about being known for knockoffs...

...when their government just did this?!!

http://www.japanprobe.com/?p=1678

[Fenris]

4. It's not a mouse, it's a cat with large ears!

:rofl:

[vickitulsa]

5. I've been thinking about this.

Wondering what would happen if China's big customers (including us) decide it's not worth the cheap prices if the goods are shoddy or defective -- or even dangerous.

Such a development would change relationships in a big way, obviously. Somehow I'm still not thinking we're going to see all those "Made in China" labels disappearing from WalMart shelves anytime soon.

[colorado thinker]

6. You should see the crap

my company imports from China under it's own label. Shoddy is far too mild to describe it. Flimsy, leaky, brittle, and spontaneously combustible describes some of the products they have staked the future of the organization on. It's very sad . . .

[pansypoo53219]

8. my mom got this cart thing from china

and just the paint seemed toxic. after coming all the way on a boat and it still reeked. god knows how toxic was. fuck new shit. i get used at estate sales. i find way better garden tools. and fans! and old 'pre-safety rules' space heaters.
i use a 1920's toaster too.

[Lost4words]

21. Good for you, old in many cases is better IMO.

the new stuff is made so cheaply, yuck!

Thrift store shopping gets the job done we have found many articles which are now treasures.

[Trillo]

7. Why is Kraft Foods lobbying

the U.S. government to improve China's food exports?

This is why International CEOs get millions of dollars a year?

[Shallah Kali]

15. get some other guy to do your work for ya. Make the US gov check your industrial cheese product

for radioactivity in case the milk protein concentrate imported as an industrial ingredient came from the Ukraine - http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x281389

[hvn_nbr_2]

22. It's obvious: The government exists to serve corporations.

You think Kraft should test its own products? And--heaven forbid--buy materials from reliable sources? Why, next thing, you're going to suggest that they're responsible for their own products. What is this country coming to?

[Blue_Tires]

9. tip of the iceberg

wait about another 5-10 years, when China will also account for the lion's share of automotive production

[Shallah Kali]

13. yep, that started at least two years ago w/makers moving parts production over to China

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4635087

[Duer 157099]

10. "The question is whether .. 'Made in China’ becomes known as ‘Buyer Beware"

Oops, sorry, too late for me.

I'm already avoiding the MiC stamp

[kurth]

11. The only "problem that worries Chinese officials" is

how to maintain party control, and how to let polluters pollute more.

They don't give a shit about the health and welfare of their own people, or how the world thinks of China.

[formercia]

18. Product of the Cultural Revolution

these very officials, who in their youth, waved their little red books at decadent intellectuals and lectured on the purity of the Communist Revolution have become the very face of the Capitalist beast they railed so strongly against.

[xchrom]

12. badly made --- and it'll kill ya. ooops.

[Shallah Kali]

14. Similar article in LA Times saying it's impossible to not buy from China

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=914004&mesg_id=914004
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-chinafood18may18,0,861387,full.story?coll=la-home-center

China exported $2.5 billion of food ingredients to the United States and the rest of the world in 2006, an increase of 150 percent from just two years earlier, according to Chinese industry estimates. It is now the predominant maker of vanilla flavoring, citric acid and varieties of Vitamin B such as thiamine, riboflavin and folic acid -- nutrients commonly added to processed flour goods such as Mission tortillas and Tyson breaded chicken.

snip

China's overall food safety record is poor. Use of chemical fertilizers and toxic pesticides is heavy. Fraud and corruption often thwart what lax controls exist. In recent years, U.S. officials have issued alerts about Chinese honey tainted with a harmful antibiotic; Chinese candy containing sulfites that can cause fatal allergic reactions; and infant formula missing vital nutrients, which in China left a dozen babies dead in 2004.

snip

In the U.S., major food manufacturers often don't know where all their ingredients originate. Mission, a Texas-based unit of Mexican food giant Gruma, would not comment about that or its directive, but said it was working with its suppliers to ensure the products were safe. Arkansas-based Tyson, one of the nation's largest providers of beef and chicken, did not respond to interview requests.

Many packaged foods contain dozens of items from around the world, acquired through complex networks of traders and brokers, before reaching manufacturing plants where companies have more direct oversight.

please support mandatory country of origin labeling for food. Our clothing is labeled saying your shirt was assembled in costa rica of fabric made in pakistan but we currently don't have the same knowledge about our food! link http://tinyurl.com/24lv2w

[Blue State Blues]

20. Great links, thanks!

Sending the Country of Origin Labeling campaign link to all of my friends who eat. ;)

[OnceUponTimeOnTheNet]

16. k&r nt

[Gelliebeans]

17. Who woulda ever thought

the makers of a concoction such as velveeta would be concerned about what gets into our food supply? ;) :evilgrin:

[The Backlash Cometh]

19. And we can't point fingers until we allow farmers to test their own beef.

[magellan]

23. Look, there's more than one guilty party here

Yes, China. But US importers and "free trade" proponents, who've gutted the FDA, are far more to blame. They're "our" people, but their loyalty is the same as any profiteer's: to the dollar first.

It's not that safe foodstuffs aren't available in China. They are. But when an importer sees, for example, wheat gluten available at one factory for -- I dunno -- say 5 cents a pound, and at another for 15 cents a pound, and the cheaper factory is reassuring them their product is just as good as the more expensive one up the road, and the importer knows it isn't their ultimate responsibility to inspect the stuff for quality anyway, which do you think they're going to buy?

Greed is at the root of this -- GLOBAL AND HOMEGROWN GREED IN THE GUISE OF FREE TRADE.

[daleo]

24. My one year old toaster died today

$15, made in China, Proctor Silex (I think). Some little spring (probably worth a nickel) inside gave up the ghost, so you have to hold down the "slider thing" for it to work. Built in obsolescence or poor quality? Who knows.

But just try to find a toaster made anywhere else. You could spend a whole day running around a city of one million to do so.

[Betsy Ross]

25. Our "govmint" can easily solve the problem

To prevent "Made in China" from being "Buyer beware" *Co could eliminate the laws requiring products to state the country of origin.

On edit: Put "govmint" in quotes lest anyone think I'm a "moran."