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Chinese media are reporting that authorities have shut down 180 food factories and revoked 37 processing licenses of food makers after inspectors found industrial chemicals in products.
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Acknowledging systematic problems in its food supply, the Chinese government said it closed 180 food manufacturers and revoked 37 processing licenses of food makers found to have used industrial chemicals and additives in food products.
The dangerous chemicals were used during the six months from December 2006 to May 2007.
The acknowledgment, published yesterday in a state-run newspaper, is the government’s boldest admission of the widespread nature of food safety problems in China since a string of tainted products made there during the six months between December and May has focused international attention and concern over the safety of Chinese exports.
The Wall Street Journal summarizes:
In a nationwide sweep for safety problems, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, which is in charge of ensuring that the country’s food supply meets safety standards, said it had found 23,000 cases of infractions between December and May. They involved products totaling 200 million yuan ($26 million), according to a statement posted yesterday on the administration’s Web site.
The watchdog said the 23,000 cases of adulterated food found nationwide in the six months is equal to 128 a day. Products included flour, candy, pickles, biscuits, bean curd and seafood. Eleven cases have been handed over to courts.
According to China Daily:
The illegal ingredients used include mineral oils derived from the processing of petroleum, paraffin, formaldehyde and the carcinogenic malachite green, a synthetic dye used to color fabrics.
“These are not isolated cases,” Han Yi, director of the administration’s quality-control and inspection department, reportedly said at a news conference in Beijing.
In the past, China has claimed that cases of food contamination were isolated, but faced with rising numbers of disturbing reports at home and abroad, it has been forced to assuage fears by publicly tackling the problem.
It was unclear whether any of the cases involved food made for export.
Inspections focusing on wine, meat, milk, beverages, soy sauce and cooking oil are still being carried out in rural and suburban areas across the country.
In March, Menu Foods, Inc., the largest maker of wet cat and dog food in North America, recalled more than 60 million cans and pouches of pet food made in U.S. facilities — an incident labeled one of the largest consumer-product recalls in North American history. Chinese wheat gluten tainted with the chemical melamine was found in the pet food, killing a number of dogs and cats and sickening thousands of others.
Meanwhile, Chinese-made toothpaste containing the antifreeze ingredient diethylene glycol has turned up in the Americas and Asia.
Most of the manufacturers that had been shut down over the past six months were small, unlicensed food plants with fewer than 10 employees, according to Yi.
Administration figures show that about 75 percent of the 1 million food-processing plants in the country are small and privately owned.
Both the Food Hygiene Law and the Criminal Law ban the use of chemical ingredients or harmful substance in food production. Violators who cause serious poisoning or death face sentences of at least 10 years in jail or even death.
Despite that, Chinese authorities said yesterday they had logged 68,000 cases of adulterated food in 2006 and withdrew 15,500 tons of substandard food from the market.
The fact that such small businesses — which often have poor management and sanitary conditions — are scattered across the country makes supervision difficult.
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And, we continue to import food products from China??? I would rather pay more and know that it is coming from a safer source.
Actually I am surprised that the U.S. imports much of any food. We have fed the world for many years, so why now are we importing?
The FDA has their hands full with monitoring foods and associated items that are manufactured in the U.S., but to expect them to inspect imported foods from a country known to be exporting unsafe foods and supplies for human consumption? Boy, we are just asking for it.