Tainted Food Is A Way Of Life In Asia

(AP)  As Nguyen Van Ninh needles his chopsticks through a steaming bowl of Vietnam's famous noodle soup, he knows it could be spiked with formaldehyde. But the thought of slurping up the same chemical used to preserve corpses isn't enough to deter him.

"I think if we don't see those chemicals being put in the food with our own eyes, then we can just smack our lips and pretend that there are no chemicals in the food," he said, devouring a 30-cent bowl of "pho" on a busy Hanoi sidewalk. "Why worry about it?"

While the discovery of tainted imports from China has shocked Westerners, food safety has long been a problem in much of Asia, where enforcement is lax and food poisoning deaths are not unusual. Hot weather, lack of refrigeration and demand for cheap street food drives vendors and producers to find inexpensive — and often dangerous — ways to preserve their products.

What's exported, for the most part, is the good stuff. Companies know they must meet certain standards if they want to make money. But in the domestic market, substandard items and adulterated foods abound, including items rejected for export.

Formaldehyde, for instance, has long been used to lengthen the shelf life of rice noodles and tofu in some Asian countries, even though it can cause liver, nerve and kidney damage. The chemical, often used in embalming, was found a few years ago in seven of 10 pho noodle factories in Hanoi.

Borax, found in everything from detergent to Fiberglas, is also commonly used to preserve fish and meats in Indonesia and elsewhere. Farmers in various countries often spray produce with banned pesticides, such as DDT.

"The people who do this want to make money. And if they're stupid and greedy, this is a bad combination," said Gerald Moy, a food safety expert at the World Health Organization in Geneva. "It's the wild West."

The quality of Asian food has come under harsh scrutiny after toxic substances were discovered in several Chinese exports.

Wheat gluten tainted with the industrial chemical melamine has been blamed for killing or sickening thousands of dogs and cats in North America. Fish containing pufferfish toxins, drug-laced frozen eel and juice spiked with harmful dyes were among other unsafe products shipped to the U.S.

Diethylene glycol, a sweet-tasting thickening agent also used in antifreeze, has been blamed for the deaths of at least 51 people in Panama after the chemical was imported from China and mixed into cough syrup and other medicines. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has halted all shipments of Chinese toothpaste to test for the same chemical reportedly found in tubes sold in Australia, the Dominican Republic and Panama.

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[pwrslm]

Its pretty messed up that our government taxes us so much that those who once owned or ran factories to make stuff safely in America are gone, and all we have to rely on are the imports from factories that we have no control over.

How many years does it take for fermaldahide to affect you? what about all those other things that have been coming through Wal Mart for the last decade?

Whats the use? Just pay your taxes and die, thats what the message is, right?

[rashid821]

Why you people keep on complaining of cheap food from the East while you keep buying them? China has bloated its economy just because of your voracious appetite!

[grammawhamma]

Population control.

[gkc99]

Just like their research is falsified, their "outsourced" products are contaminated and inferior, and their supposed cost savings to corporations are illusory.

Yet Bill Clinton, the Bushes, and the rest of the elite continue to destroy our research, technology, and manufacturing base in a fantasy of saving money for the ultrarich.

[winnerindia]

I am with my origin in India. I tell you the truth. CBSnews has published this article without telling that these chemicals are unaffordable by the poor restaurant owners and shops in Asia. These chemicals and food colours are used by grand hotels and restaurants including those, which are very well known among the foreigners. I would not take their names here for their free publicity.
Such hotels are out of reach of an ordinary man and they proudly present poisoness food, full of artificial colors which is equally liked by our Indian politicians, tourists and the rich.

[winnerindia]

I am with my origin in India. I tell you the truth. CBSnews has published this article without telling that these chemicals are unaffordable by the poor restaurant owners and shops in Asia. These chemicals and food colours are used by grand hotels and restaurants including those, which are very well known among the foreigners. I would not take their names here for their free publicity.
Such hotels are out of reach of an ordinary man and they proudly present poisoness food, full of artificial colors which is equally liked by our Indian politicians, tourists and the rich.

[hypnotoad72]

So much for the world economy; if poorly made consumables end up killing the people who keep it from stopping. (Consumer spending is what keeps the economy up.)