China Closes 180 Food Factories

Inspectors Discover Use Of Industrial Chemicals In Products Such As Candy, Seafood

(CBS/AP)  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.

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 that is likely part of a strategy to protect China's billions of dollars of food exports.

In some parts of China, rich factory owners can often keep even official prying eyes out - often by buying them off, reports CBS News correspondent Barry Petersen.

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.

To avoid more problems, there is a new five-year plan from the country that grows half the world's vegetables. They plan on increasing inspections of exports, creating a faster recall system for bad products and blacklisting companies caught violating the new rules, reports Petersen.

Han said most of the offending manufacturers were small, unlicensed food plants with fewer than 10 employees, and all had been shut down. China Daily said 75 percent of China's estimated 1 million food processing plants are small and privately owned.

According to Han, the ongoing inspections are focusing on commonly consumed food such as meat, milk, beverages, soy sauce and cooking oil. Rural areas and the suburbs; where standards are likely less strict; are still considered key areas for inspectors, he said.

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.

[kommoncents-2009]

Don't buy products made in China! You are supporting their unscrupulous business culture. No product integrity, child labor, animal torture, no qualified regulations. Cheap products are the result of all these things and you get what you pay for.

[gunownerdan]

More and more of our food today is coming from China and other foreign countries.
Make sure you buy American-made food for the best quality.

[trillion1]

Don't forget that companies like Microsoft and IBM have also sold out to China. And Gates is big on hiring forgien workers over American ones here.

[sunseeker6]

Problem with not buying food made in China is you do not know where the ingrediants come from. I lost a large dog to the pet food, which was made in USA. I never knew the wheat gluten came from China. Maybe a possible Worldwide ban on food products will wake up the Chinese Government, I doubt they are really do much. Food agents are probably sitting in their offices per gov. order, until they need more good press. More than likely the Chinese knew this was going on for years and only got busted because of the pet food accidently had to much rat poison in it. I would gladly pay more for food using ingrediants solely from the US because whose to say what happened to my dog won't happen to my kids.

[nativewoman]

Make sure you buy American-made food for the best quality. Posted by GunOwnerDan at 11:23 AM : Jun 27, 2007

Not necessarily true, GunOwnerDan.

American food producers try very hard to keep labeling to a minimum so that consumers don't really know what is in the products they eat nor where the ingredients come from.

The really sad part is that they are generally very successful. Helped along by the very agencies that are supposed to ensure that our food is safe.

[jimc52]

The Federal Govt may deny they can safeguard our food supply, but no matter how much denial, IT IS their responsibility. Elect political officials who will put an end to looking the other way like the one's we have now. Just cracking down on American food processors to take out their frustration doesn't solve the Chinese problem. You have to reject who shipments back to China like the Japanese do to American foods. If I were Prez, I'd put a complete halt on ALL Chinese imported foods and demand that the Chinese prove the food is safe to consume.

[lawyertom1]

For all of its faults, the American food industry is much better, safer etc. than what comes from the PRC. I know from clients what the business climate of the PRC is like: think the U.S. in the late 1800s/early 1900s when cocaine and heroin were additives to OTC medicines. Remember, from your high school days, Upton Sinclair's 1906 novel "The Jungle" (about meat packing plants). This is why we need a much more well funded FDA, USDA, and Customs Service [okay, okay, for you factual fanatics: U.S. Customs & Border Protection Service]. Remember, if it is made in China, it is suppose to be so labeled [Federal law]. If it is not, drop me a line and we will sue the fraudsters. ;-) [Oh, grow up, can't you tell a joke.] It is bad "over there". Caveat emptor.

[weareone2]

I have tried to avoid buying products made in China for years, because of their terrible records on human rights. But it's hard to find anything not made in China. I broke down and bought a timer a few years ago, and it didn't last very long. I haven't been able to find a portable CD player not made in China, or any electronics, for that matter. And as others have noted, we often can't tell if food contains ingredients made in China. Eg., almost all vitamin C comes from China.
Recently, I noticed that books are being printed in China. At least that I can avoid, but using the library.

[incog-nito]

Go ahead and blame the Chinese. Good luck with trying avoid Made in China products. You're barking up the wrong tree. Of course their standards are lower than the U.S. It's always been that way. The difference now is that the U.S. doesn't have much of a manufacturing base anymore. Why? Because U.S. corporations have decided to move their operations to China or import stuff made there, PRECISELY because of the lower standards there. So if you're going to blame someone, blame the U.S. businesses who operate in China or import stuff made there.

[harp1963]

What should we expect from a country that uses slave labor? These poor b a s t a r d s probably wouldn't open their mouths if they were pouring plutonium into the food products they were making. Thinking or disagreeing isn't part of the labor culture in China.

Chinese worker: Excuse me Mr. Supervisor, I noticed plutonium being put into the corn flakes.

Mr. Supervisor: You don't tell us how me make corn flakes...ten years in re-education camp for you, with regular beatings everyday.

[gkc99]

Between the Bushes and the Clintons, the give-away of US manufacturing and technology to Asians for cash is a clear case of treason. They're not the only traitors here though--many US based industry groups, including Congressionally chartered organizations like the American Chemical Society have supported policies that have facilitated the giveaway, bringing millions of Asians to the US on H1B visas, to train them to take these industries back to their own countries. The multinational owners do very well. Too bad about the US worker.

Now we see the harvest of these exportations--faked research, contaminated products, falsified analysis, payoffs, Canadian complicity in importing poisonous goods (Canada sells citizenships to Asians for nothing more than cash), and the whole sorry litany.

Thanks Bushes. Thanks Bill. Where is Hilly on all this? Quiet as a little church mouse.

[nskduke]

Kommoncents is right. Look around you a lot of the stuff you have was made in China. Wal-Mart is part of the problem because almost everything they sell there comes from China. Ever since Bill Clinton open up trading with China, retailers like Wal-Mart have switch from selling US products, to selling products from China. Over the past decade US stores have been going out of business because they can't complete with the low prices Wal-Mart has to offer.
Stop buying products that are made in China and stop shopping at Wal-Mart. We don't need any more problems in this country.

[tmittelstaed]

Last year the grandparents bought a bicycle for one of the kids from Costco. Of course, it was made in China and of course it didn't cost a lot. But you know something? That bike has lasted. I looked it over very carefully and while it's obvious it was made on an assembly line, the construction is top notch. All the welds were picture perfect, everything is aligned, and it's a very intelligent design.
And it's not just kids toys, I'm seeing this in my job, dealing with industrial electronics products, many of which while they may be designed in the US, or have parts designed in the US, are made in China. China has good and bad manufacturers and the high end product manufacturers have figured this out - if you spend more money on a product, you can get a better one made in China if you know who to talk to.
I can forsee a time not very far off when it isn't just manufacturing that will have moved to China, it will be design as well. How can you possibly have designers sitting in front of CAD systems in an office building in the US be able to do as good a job as designers sitting in front of CAD systems in China, 500 feet away from where the machines are actually cranking out the product being designed on those CAD systems? That is what the US workers need to be worrying about.

[gaye5]

The Queensland State Government in Australia bought water pipes from China to be able to take water over a massive distance, but unfortunately the one hundred million dollars pipes are unusable.. .
In Australia we dont have to check upon production of materials as manufacturing companies have to produce articles to a manufacturing standard, thus apparently once the order was placed in China they were not checked up on...
Other manufacturers have brought Stainless steal from China which turned out to be a very low grade of stainless steal thus quickly rusted..
It is great to help other countries but not at our expense..

[omega39-2009]

The unabashed free traders are learning first hand why the regulations they so despise were enacted in this country in the first place.

[bareemperor]

I will pay more to purchase American or European made products. While some Chinese products are manufactured to high-quality standards, it's a ***-shoot finding those among the rest of the $hitty stuff...

[bareemperor]

...and CBS - c r a p - shoot is an American term for gambling. Your corporate concern over censorship is stupid. The shift to Bu$h-style Victorianism is shameful. Why don't you report on crucial things, like what an idiot our president is, or how our own vice president can rule this country from a bunker, sending thousands to their deaths to ensure high profits for his favorite defense contractors...

[rushlimpdrug]

Last year the grandparents bought a bicycle for one of the kids from Costco. Of course, it was made in China and of course it didn't cost a lot. But you know something? That bike has lasted. . . . . the construction is top notch. All the welds were picture perfect, everything is aligned, and it's a very intelligent design.
. . . . . . . That is what the US workers need to be worrying about.
Posted by tmittelstaed

The Chineeze know bicycles. That has been their mode of transportation for decades-remember?
Your kids will grow up and worry about the lack of this country producing anything of value.
They are the ones that will look back and wonder why their grandparents supported outsourcing while the parents bragged about it.
Don't worry though China is our friend.
They are on the track to be a democracy, right?

[incog-nito]

Well, every empire must sooner or later come to an end. Too bad it's sooner for America.

[nskduke]

If I remember it right, China is still a communist country. When we buy merchandise from China, we are actually fueling their communist economy. Which is bad.

[asor1-2009]

Avoid Walmart/Costco/DollarGeneral/etc... at all cost.
Spend more, but buy American!
Be proud.
This could be the only salvation for our country.

[erasmus6]

Pull the troops out of Iraq and send them to China.

[Free Citizen]

NSKDuke, why is fueling communist economy bad?!

[Free Citizen]

rushlimpdrug says; "Don't worry though China is our friend. They are on the track to be a democracy, right?"

If your definition of a democracy means multi-party politics then, China isn't it. But it means what the dictionary says it means, Government by the people, then China definitely is it. If you look at the CIA factbook, suffrage is universal in China and anyone 18 and above may vote for whomever they think will best represent them in government.

[Free Citizen]

erasmus6 says, "Pull the troops out of Iraq and send them to China."

Why and what for?

[Free Citizen]

tmittelstaed, good question. The Chinese learn fast just as the Japanese did a century earlier. It won't be long before they acquire the skill to do designing work as well. But there is one skill they will never be able to excel their western counterpart. That is to design something that is aesthetically appealing to the buying masses. Something the Japanese have never been able to master and neither will the Chinese. Nevertheless, they can hire Westeners to do the job.

[Free Citizen]

NSKDuke says, "Stop buying products that are made in China and stop shopping at Wal-Mart. We don't need any more problems in this country."

Hate to burst your bubble but made in China products isn't the problem. The real problem is complacency and the resulting uncompetitiveness on your own part. But do not despair, the Chinese labour will not remain cheap forever just as Japanese labout ceased to be so almost half a century ago. Yet, most of your compatriots and probably you yourself drive a Toyota rather than a Buick.

[Free Citizen]

gkc99 : "They're not the only traitors here though--many US based industry groups, including Congressionally chartered organizations like the American Chemical Society have supported policies that have facilitated the giveaway, bringing millions of Asians to the US on H1B visas, to train them to take these industries back to their own countries"

My understanding is that local environmental laws have made it unprofitable for these chemical industires to operate locally. Whereas, the emerging economies with their very lax DOE laws are more than willing to do the dirty job for these chemical concerns. It is not so much about selling out but more about profits and greed. Unfortunately, there is no law against greed.