China Wal-Mart recalls donkey meat because of contamination

Donkey meat is a dining delicacy in northern China. Fox is not.

Wal-Mart has just recalled donkey meat products from some of its stores in China because tests show that the meat is contaminated with fox meat.

China food prices

China's farm produce prices slightly down last week: MOC

BEIJING - In the week ending February 13, farm produce prices in China declined slightly for the first time this year, the Ministry of Commerce (MOC) said in a report released on Tuesday.

As the week-long Spring Festival holiday ended, abundant supply and weakening demand had brought down vegetable prices last week, said the ministry.

Compared to a week ago, the wholesale prices of 18 staple vegetables and 8 aquatic products went down 4.3 percent and 0.9 percent, respectively, it said.


article

Toxic melamine is suspected in seafood from China

Toxic melamine is suspected in seafood from China
LA Times

Industry experts and businesspeople in China say that the industrial chemical has been routinely added to fish and animal feed to artificially boost protein readings.

Reporting from Los Angeles and Shanghai--Melamine in Chinese-produced milk powder has sickened hundreds of thousands of children and added to a growing list of made-in-China foods banned across the globe.Now, some scientists and consumer advocates are raising concerns that fish from China may also be contaminated with the industrial chemical.


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FYI... people have noticed boxes of frozen talapia bearing “Produce of China” being unloaded into Walmart seafood display cases.

China and Potato Farming

China Studies Humble Potato As Way To Beat Drought

Reuters

(BEIJING) - Chinese farming experts are considering planting potatoes instead of rice and wheat as a way to beat crippling drought each year, state media said on Tuesday.

But the government would have to provide subsidies to persuade farmers to make the switch, they said.

"The potato is more drought-resistant than rice and wheat, which suits China better as 60 percent of the country's arable land is dry," Qu Dongyu, a potato farming specialist with the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, was quoted by Xinhua news agency as saying.

China, widely hit by summer floods, also suffers from a shortage of 30 billion cubic meters of water for irrigation every year.

Chinese authorities clamp down on media reports about food safety

Japan Today | staff

HONG KONG — China is tightening its grip on media reporting food safety problems in Beijing following a recent rebuff by the government of a pork-bun report, the South China Morning Post said Tuesday.

The Hong Kong daily said several media in China's capital city have been warned or ordered to cut down on political news coverage, especially regarding unsafe food. The report said the hardest hit was the tabloid Beijing Daily Messenger, which was told by the Publicity Department of the Beijing Municipal Party Committee to "scrap its political and social pages and cover only entertainment and lifestyle stories."

California Department of Public Health Warns Consumers Not to Eat Fresh Ginger From China

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE -- Sacramento, CA -- July 29, 2007 -- Dr. Mark Horton, director of the California Department of Public Health (CDPH), today warned consumers not to eat fresh ginger imported from China after the California Department of Pesticide Regulation’s residue monitoring program detected the presence of aldicarb sulfoxide in some batches of imported ginger. Aldicarb sulfoxide is a pesticide that is not approved for use on ginger.

The product is known to have been distributed to Albertson's stores and Save Mart stores in northern California by Christopher Ranch of Gilroy, California.

CDPH and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration are tracing the imported ginger from the importer (Modern Trading Inc. in Alhambra, California) to determine the full distribution of the product and to identify other retail stores that may have received the product.

Currently, there are no reports of illness associated with the contaminated ginger.

Consumers who may have purchased this product from Albertson's stores and Save Mart stores in northern California should discard it.

Symptoms of aldicarb poisoning in humans are likely to occur within the first hour following exposure. Ingestion of foods contaminated with aldicarb at low levels can cause flu-like symptoms (nausea, headache, blurred vision) which disappear quickly, usually within 5 or 6 hours. However, at higher levels, ingestion of aldicarb contaminated food can also cause dizziness, salivation, excessive sweating, vomiting, diarrhea, muscle stiffness and twitching, and difficulty in breathing.

Individuals who may have consumed this product and have any of the above symptoms should contact their health care provider immediately.

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FDA's Recalls, Market Withdrawals and Safety Alerts Page: http://www.fda.gov/opacom/7alerts.html

China Says It’s Food Not Safe To Eat

The West Australian


An alarming admission by Beijing’s food safety boss that the country’s food industry is so unhygienic that consumers risked disease has sparked calls for tougher testing of the $400 million worth of Chinese produce eaten each year by Australians.

China’s food safety department head Sun Xiande issued the unprecedented warning to Chinese media that hidden threats would “gradually emerge and disease will likely gradually occur due to the harmful ingredients in food” in light of a series of food safety scares in the US.

“Food safety accidents or events will not only affect the healthy development of the entire (food) industry, but also possibly affect the local economy and social stability,” he was reported as saying.

China assures food safety for athletes at 2008 Beijing Olympics

BEIJING (AP) -- Despite food safety problems, China says athletes, coaches and officials at the 2008 Beijing Olympics can be assured of healthy meals.

"All the procedures involving Olympic food, including production, processing, packaging, storing and transporting will be closely monitored," Sun Wenxu, an official with the State Administration for Industry and Commerce, said Tuesday.

China has come under international pressure to boost food safety and monitoring mechanisms following repeated scandals over contaminated Chinese food exports.

That has underscored chronic problems with adulterated ingredients and fake products in the domestic food supply, raising questions of how well China can guarantee the purity of food for the games.

China shuts 180 food factories for using illegal chemicals

BEIJING, China (AP) -- China has closed 180 food factories after inspectors found industrial chemicals being used in products from candy to seafood, state media said Wednesday.

The closures came amid a nationwide crackdown on shoddy and dangerous products launched in December that also uncovered use of recycled or expired food, the China Daily said.

Formaldehyde, illegal dyes, and industrial wax were found being used to make candy, pickles, crackers and seafood, it said, citing Han Yi, an official with the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, which is responsible for food safety.

"These are not isolated cases," Han, director of the administration's quality control and inspection department, was quoted as saying.

CNN

China Food Safety Issue Not Hurting Sales

SHANGHAI -- Controversy over the safety of Chinese food products is grabbing headlines around the world, but multinational companies which sell food from China said the issue was not threatening their business.

Executives attending an international food industry conference in Shanghai this week urged China to allay public fears by strengthening its regulation of the sector.

The News - International

WP: "Cause for Concern In Chinese Bulbs?"

...Most of us buy garlic at a supermarket. We don't know what kind it is, how fresh it is or where it's grown. But there's a good chance it comes from China, which produces 75 percent of the world's supply...

Garlic is the United States' biggest fresh-vegetable import from China, which sent us 138 million pounds of it worth more than $70 million last year. We also get small amounts from Mexico, Argentina and about 15 other countries. We eat a lot of garlic -- about three pounds per person a year.

Although most of our fresh garlic comes from halfway around the world, it's cheaper than garlic grown in California...

Washington Post article

Flaw in the ointment

It was perhaps inevitable that at some stage China would trip, given the speed at which it hurtles towards economic supremacy. That fall, in the glare of the world's media, has come with the humiliating revelations that fake food and medical ingredients have been exported, triggering mass poisonings in the West. With the Beijing Olympics just over a year away, Chinese officials have been forced into frantic damage control.

Brisbane Times