Gaki N Me If you love to talk about the world, love Asian idols, this is the place.

Ha, retaliation from the Chinese! They have just rejected certain shipments of raisins, health capsules including bee pollen and bacteria-figihting supplements due to contaminants from the US, and last month they rejected France's Evian water because of concern about high bacteria levels.

China Rejects Health Supplements And Raisins From Two U.S. Companies

China Rejects Food Imports From the U.S.

Posted May 31, 2007:

Today, China has sentenced a former head of Chian's State Food and Drug Administration for taking bribes and gifts to death.  This is probably a response to the recent food contamination cases in China. In 2003, they executed a vice provincial governor of Anhui for the same thing. But that would not do anything to alleviate the poor regulation of the food industry.  Recently 19 government officals were punished because they allowed a smeltery to continue to pollute the environment. 34% of the kids in Xinsi have lead levels above 700 micrograms per liter of blood.  According to the World Health Organization, anything above 100 micrograms in children could cause permanent neurological damage, reduced IQ. About 34%!!! of children across China have levels exceeding WHO limit!!! Man, what is China trying to do? Kill its own people?

China Confronts Crisis Over Food Safety

Posted May 23, 2007:

OMG, I ran out of time yesterday to post this but I'm now changing the title to Asian goods. I saw this article and had to start going through my cupboards again. I already threw out the fermented beancurds and the last of the chili oil.  Now I have to throw out rice noodles? "In Vietnam, government health inspectors have found formaldehyde in the national dish, pho noodle soup, borax in traditional cakes, and whitening chemicals in rice noodles." 

Food safety 'an issue across Asia'

Thank goodness my husband doesn't use the pho noodle soup mix but make his own. But my curry! I have to abstain from buying red curry. Cancer causing Sudan Red which is used for coloring solvents including shoe polish and floor polish has been found in eggs, lipsticks in China and curry in India. Sulfur dioxide used to preserve fruits and vegetables in Asia is used in wine making and dried fruits and if used in excess, could be harmful. I'm not touching anything foreign except pasta from Italy.

Posted May 21, 2007:

Thanks to SamIAm at my forum for sending the link to this article, The trouble on the world's farm, from a Canadian perspective. It imports $705 million worth of foodstuff half of which are fresh fruits and vegetables from China, their fifth largest supplier.  Fish and seafood are big import items and with the problem of antibiotic residue in Chinese fish, Canada has inspected more vigorously and found 12 per cent of shipments from China were in violation and 3 per cent had microbial contamination.

Canada also rejected "filthy salted bean cubes to unsafe colourants in jujubes, from dangerous additives, such as dulcin (a sweetener believed to be carcinogenic) in dried fruit and nitrofuran (an antibiotic banned in Canada) in breaded shrimp, to banned drugs in all sorts of fish."

"The Los Angeles Times reported that two major food manufacturers in the U.S., Mission Foods Corp. and Tyson Foods Inc., ordered their suppliers to stop using ingredients from China....China has consistently had the most shipment rejections of any country. Last month, China had 257 rejections. The next highest were Mexico and India, with 140 and 122, respectively."

It appears that the WHO will release a study of the food safety of China's food supply tomorrow.

Posted May 18, 2007:

Today's article China grapples with food contamination credibility crisis is timely and to the point. After the pet food scare, consumers in the US are demanding that pet products not contain any ingredients from China, according to the Pet Food Institute. The US food industry is terrified of what else could be tainted in the food imports. 80% of our apple juice concentrate comes from China. (Easy, we don't drink apple juice here.)  Europe and Latin America are now inspecting more of China food products.  I don't care if the US$30 million food imports from China is going to go down. I don't want Americans to be killed by Chinese food. It gives Chinese a bad name. Period. Two weeks ago, Wal-Mart has to recall all the baby bibs made in China because they contain lead! L E A D!!! Could you believe it? Alright, I'll update this post when there are more horror stories.  But don't buy Chinese goods if you could help it.

My poor mom in Hong Kong does not dare eat eggs, meat from China, nor their canned food. She has to wash the vegetables for half a day because she is afraid of pesticides. I don't think Hong Kong would be a good travel destination after all, nor China. One day, China is going to poison its own people.