The FDA Finally Restricts Some Chinese Food Imports Due to Melamine Poisoning
November 14th, 2008
According to The Wall Street Journal, the FDA finally took action to restrict Chinese milk based products.
Months after evidence surfaced, and indeed after 13 smaller Asian nations already took action, our Food and Drug Administration finally restricted milk based food imports from China. Unfortunately, this is not a ban, as importers simply provide testing statistics that Melamine content is below 2.5 particles per million. The response has been shockingly slow, and that threshold is way too much. Even Taiwan allows much less than 2.5 particles of melamine per million, at 0.5 parts per million.
No action was yet taken on eggs or other products where real evidence on animal feed has been shown to have been poisoned with Melamine.
How much food do we import from China? According to the UN Statistics Division, $3,800,000,000 worth of wholesale food was imported into the USA from China last year. Very roughly, that is about 120 servings of food products per American in 2007 that could have contained some food from China, or about 10 per month for every American.
However, that may substantially underestimate other ingredients that end up in food products here, like the whey (wheat based product) that was laced with melamine added to pet food that was implicated in the deaths of thousands of pets here in America.
Why has the FDA response been so slow compared to 13 smaller Asian nations, which apparently have their act together? Why no action on the eggs, etc., when even Wal-Mart in China is pulling eggs off shelves? Is the FDA lacking competence, appropriate urgency, or is this another way our government does not want to offend China? Whatever the reason, people’s health has been put at risk.
We need serious change in the way food safety of imports is handled, and we need it now. Politics must not get in the way of food safety.
Todd Lipscomb
Founder of http://madeinusaforever.com/ your source for American-Made products.
Friday, November 14th, 2008 at 6:46 pmand is filed under Uncategorized.
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