It would appear so according to todays headline.
China shuts 180 food factories for using illegal chemicals
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.
Not isolated cases. Frightening.
Could we have been poisoning the next generation with tainted candy and other products?
Han's admission was significant because the administration has said in the past that safety violations were the work of a few rogue operators, a claim which is likely part of a strategy to protect China's billions of dollars (euros) of food exports.
International concerns over China's food safety problems ballooned this year after high levels of toxins and industrial chemicals were found in exported products.
Chinese-made toothpaste has been rejected by several countries in North and South America and Asia, while Chinese wheat gluten tainted with the chemical melamine was blamed for dog and cat deaths in North America. Other products turned away by U.S. inspectors include toxic monkfish, frozen eel and juice made with unsafe color additives.
Authorities in China have pushed for more stringent controls and increased publicity of their efforts to control the problem.
Yeah, they don't want the world to start blocking imports of Chinese products due to safety concerns. Major changes only occur when not changing will result in huge losses of revenue.
Meanwhile, another regulating agency, China's State Administration for Industry and Commerce, said it closed 152,000 unlicensed food manufacturers and retailers last year for making fake and low-quality products.
It also banned 15,000 tons of "unqualified food" from entering the market because it failed to meet national standards.
Those numbers are staggering. And sickening.
It's not clear whether all these manufacturers exported their products to the US or elsewhere, but it certainly makes you wonder and want to demand that foods be labeled with country of origin.
And based on another headline, it appears China companies are dealing with recalls of other products, including truck tires. Once again they are denying any wrongdoing on their part.
Sounds like their denials during the pet food tainting scandal.....an event that is still claiming lives of animals. Here is the story of a woman who lost two dogs to kidney failure this winter and who has now lost a third dog this month due to delayed effects of ingested smaller quantities of melamine-tainted food.
Hopefully, the increased regulations China are imposing and the crackdown on companies that are making unsafe products will turn things around in terms of the safety of products that originate from China. But time will tell if this is in fact the case.
In the meantime, our own regulatory agency is not instilling a lot of confidence in me. Not when I read the director of FDA saying things like this:
Q Critics are tough. One editorial calls food safety laws toothless, FDA staff overworked, and inspection regimens dominated by industry. True?
A I can't specifically say whether that's true or not true. There is recognition that there is a need for some change. There are a lot of very dedicated people in the FDA who are doing the best with the resources that they have, and the authorities that they have, to maximally protect public health.
We are a reactive agency. We need to continue to do that. We need to do it faster. But we've got to shift this. We're the fire department that's gone in there once the fire has broken out. We need to be putting smoke detectors in places and figuring out whether the wiring is old and fixing those things to prevent the fires.
Q Give an example of how a prevention focus changes FDA actions.
A How do you prevent E. coli 0157:H7 from getting on spinach? That's the bug that caused the spinach outbreak. You need to do the basic science to understand how that contamination can occur. How do you prevent it? Do you test the water on a regular basis? Do you push cattle further away? Do you need better washing strategies in the processing plants? You then educate industry on how to do that. And then, potentially down the road, verify they are doing it.
Q Is that happening now?
A No, it's not. But it's where we need to go.
Q The agency inspects roughly 1 percent of the $60 billion in imported food. How much more does the FDA need for inspectors?
A I do not believe that simply doubling, tripling, increasing by a factor of 10 the number of inspectors is going to solve the problem. One has to build this into a comprehensive preventative strategy, working with industry to help them understand what preventative controls work the best. You then need to potentially verify that they're doing that. You then need inspectors in the system for the intervention part: to inspect foods, maybe after they've been produced, somewhere during their life before they reach retail . . . Looking to prevent the problem from ever arriving on somebody's dinner plate.
If we are going to move the food safety and security system forward, we are going to need to address this with new resources and, potentially, new authorities. The changes are real. There is a limit to what you can accomplish with the resources that we currently have.
While I do not disagree that resources ($$$$$$) are a big part of the problem, I do disagree with his assertion that more inspectors wouldn't go a long way towards improving food safety. Obviously that would have to work in concert with more preventative measures, working with industry to let them know what practices are not acceptable. But given this guy is a Bush appointee, I imagine that he will not or cannot advocate more regulations and oversight. That just isn't the Bush (the corporate whore) way.
Until we change administrations, I fear real change won't happen swiftly.
And our health will continue to be at risk as unsafe food and unsafe consumer products continue to come into the marketplace and people's homes. Because China isn't the only country where corporate oversight is lacking.