US pushes China on food safety, a "top concern" (Reuters)

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

US pushes China on food safety, a "top concern"
23 May 2007 19:10:25 GMT
Source: Reuters

-snip-

WASHINGTON, May 23 (Reuters) - The Bush administration on
Wednesday pressed visiting Chinese officials about food safety, a
key issue for U.S. consumers after a toxic chemical surfaced in
imported pet food and sparked worries about livestock feed.

Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt said U.S. officials
told a Chinese delegation at high-level talks in the U.S. capital
that the safety of food and medicine imports was a "top concern."

"Recent events have forced very clearly as one of our top concerns
the safety of food and medicine," Leavitt told reporters in a briefing
after a two-day "strategic economic dialogue" involving scores of
senior officials from both countries.

The safety of food imports from China came under intense scrutiny
after melamine, a chemical used in plastics and fertilizers, surfaced
in U.S. pet food this year, killing pets and prompting a wave of
recalls. Petfood scraps were also used in some livetock rations,
briefly interrupting the marketing of some poultry, hogs and fish.

-snip-

Read more: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N23233687.htm

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Source: Reuters

China calls for cooler heads over product safety
23 May 2007 19:23:36 GMT
Source: Reuters

-snip-

BEIJING, May 23 (Reuters) - China called for cooler heads to prevail
in a widening scandal over product safety on Wednesday, accusing
critics of exploiting concerns about specific cases to erect barriers
to its exports in general.

In the latest incident, the Dominican Republic has banned the sale
of two brands of Chinese toothpaste for containing a lethal chemical
responsible for dozens of poisoning deaths in Panama last year.

A company under investigation for exporting the toothpaste, Danyang
Household Chemical Company, defended its product.

"Toothpaste is not something you'd swallow, but spit out, and so it's
totally different from something you would eat," one company manager,
who declined to be identified, said by telephone from the eastern
province of Jiangsu.

-snip-

Read more: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N23245110.htm

[AnneD]

1. It's ok to put

arsneic in tooth paste because you spit it out. :crazy: So how much of that toothpaste did they sell in China? Just curious.

[gratuitous]

2. Any enforcement options?

Wel-l-l-l-l, no, because that would entail a government program, and as all good Republicans squawk over and over again, government doesn't do any good for any body. If you can't afford a lab to analyze your foodstuffs, tough shit; you shouldn't have chosen to be so poor.