What's in your food? You'd be surprised

[kurth]

April 29, 2007
What's in your food? You'd be surprised
Despite an increase in shipments, foreign ingredients aren't a priority for inspectors
By Justin Pritchard
Associated Press

LOS ANGELES -- The same food safety net that couldn't catch poisoned pet food ingredients from China has a much bigger hole. Billions of dollars' worth of foreign ingredients that Americans eat in everything from salad dressing to ice cream get a pass from overwhelmed inspectors, despite a rising tide of imports from countries with spotty records, according to an Associated Press analysis of federal trade and food data.

Well before contaminated shipments from China killed 16 cats and dogs and sickened thousands more, government food safety task forces worried about the potential human threat; ingredients are hard to quarantine and can go virtually everywhere in a range of products. When U.S. Food and Drug Administration inspectors at ports and border checkpoints look, they find shipments that are filthy or otherwise contaminated. They rarely bother, however, in part because ingredients aren't a priority. Because these oils, spices, flours, gums and the like haven't been blamed for killing humans, safety checks before they reach the supermarket shelf are effectively the responsibility of U.S. buyers. As the pet deaths showed, however, that system is far from secure.

Meanwhile, the ingredient trade is booming. Over the past five years, the AP found, U.S. food makers prospecting for bargains more than doubled their business with low-cost countries such as Mexico, China and India. Those nations also have the most shipments fail the limited number of checks the FDA makes. In 2001, the United States imported about $4.4 billion worth of ingredients processed from plants or animals, AP's analysis shows. By last year, that total leaped to $7.6 billion, a 73 percent increase. Other food and drink imports rose from $38.3 billion to $63 billion, up 65 percent...

By its own latest accounting, the FDA had only enough inspectors to check about 1 percent of the 8.9 million imported food shipments in fiscal year 2006... That leaves quality control, by and large, to American buyers and their suppliers. If they don't do it, they run the risk of health problems that can devastate a brand and generate lawsuits. But except in rare cases, companies don't have to prove that a shipment of ingredients is safe -- no tests must show that it's pesticide-free, for example -- and the FDA rarely checks whether overseas processing conditions are up to par. That contrasts with meat imports regulated by the Department of Agriculture, which must be processed under conditions equivalent to those here. "Unless there's a known problem," Nielsen said, "it's going to fly through."

http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070429/NATIONWORLD/704290439/-1/ZONES04

[OneBlueSky]

1. very important article . . . kicked and recommended . . . n/t

.

[Karenina]

2. And another!

:kick: