"What few contaminated products FDA discovers are often shipped again"....

[Junkdrawer]

Tainted food exposes Chinese import woes

Dried apples preserved with a cancer-causing chemical.
Frozen catfish laden with banned antibiotics.
Scallops and sardines coated with putrefying bacteria.
Mushrooms laced with illegal pesticides.

These were among the 107 food imports from China that the Food and Drug Administration detained at U.S. ports just last month, agency documents reveal, along with more than 1,000 shipments of tainted Chinese dietary supplements, toxic Chinese cosmetics and counterfeit Chinese medicines.

For years, U.S. inspection records show, China has flooded the United States with foods unfit for human consumption. And for years, FDA inspectors have simply returned to Chinese importers the small portion of those products they caught -- many of which turned up at U.S. borders again, making a second or third attempt at entry.

....

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18729540/

And THAT's what you've been eating, America. Isn't globalization wonderful?

[Double T]

1. 'Chinese' of any flavor is now off my menu just like most of the other.......

crap they send us. Wake Up Americans, YOU are being bamboozled.

[Junkdrawer]

2. My big worry is the bulk raw foodstuffs that feed our food factories...

We eat so many processed foods. From the same article:


...

It is not just that food from China is cheap, said William Hubbard, a former associate director of the FDA. For a growing number of important food products, China has become virtually the only source in the world.

China now controls 80 percent of the world's production of ascorbic acid, for example, a valuable preservative that is ubiquitous in processed and other foods. Only one producer still makes it in the United States, Hubbard said.

...


And there was a cite on an earlier thread that Chinese ascorbic acid was contaminated with lead. And would that show up on a label as "Made in China"? Doubt it.

[doni_georgia]

3. Only answer is to stay away from processed foods

because even if you make sure not to buy Chinese, you don't know the source of the foods in a processed product. My son has a lot of food allergies, so I cook everything from scratch. I buy organic when I can't buy local products.

[AndyTiedye]

5. How Many Hours Do You Spend in the Kitchen Every Day to Do That?

[Blue State Blues]

8. Food: you can have it fast, cheap, or good ... pick any 2

Not the OP, but there are ways to make your own food from scratch with a hectic lifestyle:

1. pick easy recipes and learn to make them quickly (the "30 minutes" school of thought)
2. make meals in bulk on weekends and freeze small portions for later (the "frozen assets" plan)
3. make "convertible" meals, part of monday's leftovers becomes tuesday's dinner

There are also prepared organic meals (though watch country of origin labeling, since organics from China just aren't really organic), but they cost more. Sometimes a lot more. Sometimes no so much.

Food allergic people (and the parents of food allergic kids) like the OP really have no choice but to make their own food. Cross-contamination issues from facilities that process allergens (such as nuts, dairy, wheat, corn, soy, the list goes on depending on the allergic person) can make eating any processed food potentially fatal. Labels can change, and loopholes sometimes send items to the store with new ingredients and old labels.

My point, and I do have one somewhere, is this: people dealing with food allergies can do it. They do it because they have to (even though it can be a pain).

The sad thing is that food safety is deteriorating rapidly to the point where we all face the same kind of fears about every bite we take. Yeah, I'm in a hurry, and I'm hungry ... but could this tasty packaged food-like product I'm holding poison me? Is it worth the risk?

Those are questions food allergic people face every day ... now coming to a supermarket near you.

[Igel]

9. If you cheat, surprisingly few.

Most veggies don't take long to cook. Get a rice cooker. If you're going to boil potatoes for dinner, peel and cut up enough for a couple of nights, leave the half you don't use under water in the fridge.

Then make the main course in large batches (it helps, having been a line cook ... hard to get jobs with a BA in Russian during a recession). Put what you'll use in the next few days in the fridge, freeze the rest, and heat it up as needed.

A few days ago 6 lbs of beef became achar gosht, there's still a bunch of garlic/cilantro chicken left, and there's even a bit of chicken korma and beef BBQ lurking in the freezer. The chicken for making flautas is cooked, shredded, and frozen. Of course, it's a bit hard to stockpile much when my KitchenAid ice cream "attachment" is taking up so much room in the freezer.

Moreover, I usually stock up when it's cool enough here to leave the windows open--that way I'm not thwarting the air conditioning.

[upi402]

10. For me, I cook real simple usually.

Wild salmon or organic chicken -if available.
Vegetables, Steamed or stir-fried in ex virgin organic olive oil.

My problem is that I've heard from grocery workers that the 'organic' label is often B.S.
...From the same box, or farm, etc

[Double T]

4. 'WE' need to demand and make it mandatory the origin of the grower.......

of all of our food products. 'WE' also need a competent FDA.

[knitter4democracy]

11. Amen to that.

I refuse to buy much produce from outside of my state, let alone from the country. It takes a lot of reading of labels, though, which I don't mind. I definitely want to know where everything is coming from!

[KoKo]

6. kick

[Blue State Blues]

7. Require Country of Origin Labeling (COOL)

Everybody else is doing it ... why don't we. ;)

Link here (democracy in action):
http://preview.tinyurl.com/24lv2w

I realize it would only be part of the solution -- we also need tough standards, more inspectors, and perhaps tariffs to encourage local food production -- but giving consumers the option to say no is only reasonable.