Tainted Japanese mustard and soy sauce - Made in China

Tainted Japanese mustard and soy sauce - Made in China

thestar.com.m y

BEIJING (Reuters) - China, accused in Japan of producing tainted frozen beans and dodgy dumplings, now says it has found toxic chemicals used in paint in Japanese mustard and soy sauce.

China has been swept by a series of food- and product-safety scandals in recent months involving goods as diverse as toys, tyres, toothpaste, pet food, fish and baby cribs and is fighting a scare over melamine found in milk and other products.

(visit the link for the full news article)

here we go again! wonder how serious this will get. being a chinese, i find this sad and degrading the way China produces food in such a way.

though i am born Malaysian.



is there a need to substitute raw ingredient for food with toxic chemical..it hurts everyone that consumes it..

some pressure have to be put on the government of China.




thestar.com.m y
(visit the link for the full news article)

for Melamine scandals, check out these threads

USA - Halloween tainted candies

Melamine tainted dairy products

It truly is a sad state of affairs. In Japan the CEO would probably commit Hari Kari out of shame.

In China they act like they just don't care. The melamine scandal has now reached eggs. It is thought it made it into the feed. I wonder how many more dialysis machines they had to buy to accomodate the children who's kidneys are fried from melamine crystallization.

Lead on toys, etc. etc. I believe a full boycot of Chinese goods is in order.
Certainly the US must closely check and test chinese imports.

Shocking and disturbing. But look how they live. They have no wastewater tx, a billion peoples waste just pours into the rivers. It is no surprise most new diseases emanate from china.

Oh, and by the by, they almost killed my dogs with the tainted alpo. They were sick for days. I complained to the company and they sent me a coupon for 60 lbs of dry dog food after all tainted products were removed.

[edit on 10/31/2008 by jpm1602]

China will kill us all !!!!

From Lead painted childrens toys, to SARS, from food additves to you name it... There is no excuses for cutting corners when it comes to health. No wonder they are the fastest growing economy, you country would too if cut corners producing crap. Australia makes great things, but then eventually we sell our businesses overseas, then its mass produced and modified to be created even more cheaply, yet somehow we pay more ...

Crazy

it is not just that, i once bag packed in China before, what i see is truly something quite sad..

being the new economic power house (emerging), on thing for sure is that wealth is not distributed evenly in China, they have approx 1.1 billion people in China and only 10% of the Chinese population enjoy basic necessity like clean water, a job, decent living conditions and mostly does that lives around cities like Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Dalian.. the rest of the places is still below poverty line.

most of these manufacturing plants are located in the remote provinces where many people are still deprive of basic sanitation and also basic educations..

but to manage educations for the rest of 90% of the population will be a tall order and it' can't be achieved in 5 - 10 years time i think.

not to mentioned trying to manage produces that comes from these provinces going into the world..alot of effort will have to be done by the Chinese government..and they have to eradicate corruptions to give a true transparent check and balances in their economies.

just imho

It's so sad that this has to come on the heels of such a monumental occasion for the Chinese girls Olympics gymnastics team. They competed with honor, fairness, and total disclosure...

Oh wait, they screwed that up too.

Talk about America being crappy all you want...we don't hold a rickshaw to China

I do not understand why companies who buy Chinese goods cannot have inspections before the goods are exported from China. I guess there is enough greed to go around though.

reply to post by affeyee


You know what, if it says made in Chine, just don't do it. Then again speaking those words make one wonder if the ultimate global goal isn't to shun China's products period, and get people back to purchasing items in their own respective countries. Hmmm.

well, we should all buy locals, however isn't it all started with the world's most industrialised nations wanting to maximised their profits and try to manufacture their products in the cheapest location possible..

sometimes is good and sometimes it is bad, just like in these case, it is totally unacceptable don't you think ?

China's inability to control the quality of its output will be its downfall. Its not like any other country, where there are periodic scares (eg BSE in UK, pesticides in cola in India etc).

China has shown a persistent inability to adhere to any sort of QC. I mean how the hell can a company be so lax as to allow melamine into eggs?! Buying food from China is looking like a deathwish at the moment. The only product worth buying is probably rat poison, since its likely to be more deadly than it says on the bottle!

reply to post by 44soulslayer


hehehe, that sounds funny! but you are right, maybe they should switch to only manufacture poison, since they are good in doing that.

Originally posted by jpm1602
It truly is a sad state of affairs. In Japan the CEO would probably commit Hari Kari out of shame.
. . .

The sauces were produced by three Japanese factories, Xinhua said without revealing the names of the producers. The watchdog ordered Chinese companies to test similar products and take them off the shelves, the report said. . . .

So far there is no report of any of the Japanese CEOs committing Hari Kari.

They didn't after the recent tainted rice scandal either, in which tonnes of mouldy pesticide-laced rice was diverted from glue factories and used in school lunches, hospitals, old-folks homes, rice-cake and saki.

[edit on 31/10/08 by Kailassa]

Originally posted by space cadet
reply to post by affeyee

 

You know what, if it says made in Chine, just don't do it. Then again speaking those words make one wonder if the ultimate global goal isn't to shun China's products period, and get people back to purchasing items in their own respective countries. Hmmm.

No, the big powers want globalization. Conglomerates make more money that way. The fact that we get less able to choose healthy food and influence producers that way suits them just fine.

If anything, this is related to eugenics, eliminating the poorest of the world's population. I don't believe it happened for that reason, it was just greed, but people in control who are inclined towards these ideas, (or bribed,) will turn a blind eye.

We should all try to source our food as locally as possible. That way we can influence producers and have as little energy wasted as possible in getting the food to our doors.

However, when we can't trust our own governments, even this becomes a bit of a lottery. I do not believe we can trust the Whore of Food Manufacturers and Pharmaceutical companies, otherwise known as the FDA, to protect us from toxic ingredients.

In China, ANYTHING made with Chinese-manufactured milk powder before September 14th was PULLED from their store shelves. In the US, this garbage is still being sold! Foods at risk: ANY food manufactured in China and potentially any food containing milk powder. US food manufacturers imported millions of pounds of milk powder from China before September 14th. The FDA continues to allow to be sold. This includes chocolate, cookies, cakes, and even things like packaged macaroni and cheese.

This imported milk powder is not being sold as Chinese powdered milk, it's being used in the manufacture of baked goods and confectionery, and there is no way for the consumer to know they are eating contaminated goods.

Originally posted by Kailassa

Originally posted by space cadet
reply to post by affeyee

 

This imported milk powder is not being sold as Chinese powdered milk, it's being used in the manufacture of baked goods and confectionery, and there is no way for the consumer to know they are eating contaminated goods.

well, like i mentioned in the other thread, the problem with chinese powdered milk is only confined to China as far as we know, in this case the babies in China is the unfortunate victims of this whole scandal..but within these 7 months, china might have produces millions of tonnes of raw ingredient for dairy products such as raising agents for biscuits, breads and many more.. now these raw ingredient might have found their way into products from other countries..and these are the hardest to track in my opinion..

reply to post by affeyee
The actual powdered milk has been sent all over the world.

Interactive map - Tainted Chinese Milk Powder Spreads Across the Globe

Burundi imports milk products from two suspect Chinese companies and the government has set up a commission to investigate how much tainted product could remain on store shelves, officials said.

In issuing its recall of milk products, Singapore had already suspended the import and sale of milk and dairy products from China on Friday, after it said it has found traces of melamine in three.

In Bangladesh, three Chinese powdered milk brands -- Sanlu, Suncare and Yashili -- have been taken off shelves and all milk powder imports at Bangladeshi ports will be inspected. Bangladeshi TV showed the country's Rapid Action Battalion climbing over a fence to raid a storage facility believed to contain tainted milk.

In Malaysia, Health Minister Datuk Liow Tiong Lai announced that import of Chinese milk products had been stopped. In addition to banning imports, thousands of tons of tainted milk powder have been recalled.

In the Philippines Monday, the country's Bureau of Food and Drugs banned the distribution and selling of two brands of imported Chinese milk that could possibly be tainted, the Philippines News Agency reported.

In Hong Kong, concerned parents have swamped hospitals. A 3-year-old Hong Kong girl was reported this weekend as the first case outside of mainland China. The girl was treated for kidney stones at Princess Margaret Hospital and released, Hong Kong's government Web site reported. Her condition is being monitored.

Canada cannot trace the Casein they imported from China:

As a result, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, last month decided to track down 2008 imports of milk-derived ingredients to test for melamine contamination. But the agency only found a few records of interest - two small shipments of casein, totalling 125 kilograms. And by the time the agency found the importers, it was too late to test for adulteration.

CFIA and Statistics Canada officials cannot explain the discrepancy between the amount StatsCan says was imported - two shipments of 18,000 kilograms each in February and April and a 52-kilogram shipment in June - and the much smaller 125-kilogram shipments CFIA records show. As a result, CFIA did not track down the bulk of the recorded imports for testing.

CFIA suggested the remaining shipments could have been in transit - en route to the United States - meaning there would be no product in Canada. But Statistics Canada holds a different position - it said Monday the shipments reported as imports were not trans-shipments or "pit stops" on the way to the U.S.

Casein, often listed as sodium caseinate, calcium caseinate or milk protein, is found in energy bars and drinks as well as packaged goods. Whey protein is a popular supplement for athletes.

Meanwhile, 907,000 kilograms of casein and other powdered milk proteins worth $38.8 million US were imported to the United States from China from January to July.

The root of the problem:

Dessert cakes in Japan, strawberry-flavoured milk in Singapore, iced coffee in Germany, Cadbury chocolates in the United Kingdom, White Rabbit-brand candy in the United States and thousands of other consumer foods have been found to be contaminated with melamine.

Late last month, Chinese feed industry players made it clear that not only was melamine always used in livestock and aquaculture feed, it never stopped being used.

Since melamine has no protein value, the melamine-fed animal’s meat has less protein than normal. To cover up that meat (or milk’s) lack of protein, even more melamine must then be added to the meat during processing!

The melamine-contamination chain is now very clear: Protein-poor, melamine-contaminated feed leads to protein-poor meat, which is then made to look as if it contains sufficient protein.

Hence, using melamine at the feed end of the livestock chain leads to the inevitable addition of melamine into the final processed chicken, fish, milk, beef or pork.

'Made in USA' Foods May Be Contaminated:

Potentially toxic Chinese ingredients not inspected before use in U.S.

Food labeled as made in the U.S.A. could contain tainted ingredients from China. Amid recent concerns over the safety of food products from China, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) says it has stepped up efforts to increase screening imports. The screening applies only to food products, and not to raw ingredients.

“That [screening] doesn’t cover the ingredients—ingredients are exempt,” says Henri Morris, President and CEO of Edible Software. “A lot of stuff is falling through the cracks.” Morris's company supplies inventory control and management accounting software to wholesale food distributors.

According to the FDA’s Country of Origin rule, “a statement of the country of origin on the labeling of imported foods is not required by the Federal Food, Drug, & Cosmetic Act”. The regulation is required by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

Under FDA rules, when further reprocessing occurs or material is added to the imported product, it results as a “substantial transformation” of the product. The country of origin can then be changed on the product. According to Morris, this means that ingredients such as milk powder, whey powder, milk concentrate and other items from China could be put into products that could then be labeled as “made in the U.S.A.” He adds that the current system offers little protection for consumers.

As a follow up,:

Don't expect the FDA to be giving a damn.
They are whores who only exist to collect bribes and protect the food and drug industries.

After melamine-tainted milk sickened thousands of Chinese children, the recent announcement by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration was meant to calm American consumers. The nation may well import vast amounts of food and food ingredients from China, but don't worry. According to the FDA, a little melamine (2.5 parts per million) isn't harmful in most foods.

Sorry, but that's far from reassuring. Melamine, which triggered the pet food recalls about a year ago, is an ingredient used in plastics manufacturing. It's added to food products to falsely boost protein levels and mask food adulteration: in this case, watering down milk. The FDA essentially said there's an acceptable level for a contaminant (excluding baby formula) that is intentionally and illegally added to food.

I find it hard to believe this is news worthy. Virtually everything coming from China lately has major problems associated with it. The governments arent going to "wake up" and ban imports from China, the FDA or each countries equivalent arent going to impose higher standards from China. Bottom line is there is simply too much money involved. There are alot of people world wide, and therefore alot of food moving around, its impossible for any government organization to monitor everything.

Our "authorities" can bang the shoe on the desk all they want, but at the end of day, its business as usual.

The only people who can monitor our intake is ourselves. Buy local, grow your own, keep up to date on whats going on with the worldwide food chain. No one else is going to do it for you.