China keeps violating US food standards

At least 137 food shipments were rejected as “filthy” after testing positive
for salmonella, or for containing banned ingredients.

The Food
and Drug Administration last month seized more than 1,000 shipments
of tainted dietary supplements, toxic cosmetics and counterfeit medicines from
China.

A good portion of the rejected Chinese shipments each month
includes fish and seafood like catfish, shrimp, mahi-mahi, tilapia, eel and
yellow fin tuna.

Other Chinese imports that failed inspection include
herbal teas, bean curd, candy, dried apples, dried peaches and peanut milk,
while non-food rejects included catheters and lip gloss.

The burgeoning
food import scandal has been spotlighted because of the recent highly publicized
contamination of dog and cat food ingredients from China.

Market
dominance
China, which exports about $2 billion each year in food
products, not only is a cheap supplier of a growing number of important food
products, but for some key foodstuffs it is virtually the sole
purveyor.

For instance, China now is dominating the world’s production of
ascorbic acid, which is a valuable preservative that is ubiquitous in processed
foods.

US companies have become so dependent on the Chinese exports that
they may be reluctant to reduce the flow of goods.

US agriculture
officials also have seized hundreds of tonnes of prohibited poultry products
from China and other Asian countries over the past year, including some shipped
in crates labelled “dried lily flower,” and “prune slices.”

Menu Foods
drops Chinese ingredients
Menu Foods, North America’s biggest maker of
wet pet foods and the company that launched the pet food recall, is phasing out
ingredients from China.

It won’t resume using them until Menu and the
“world community” are assured that they are safe, says Menu’s outside counsel,
David Lillehaug of Fredrikson & Byron.