Do You Know Where Your Food Comes From?

Finding Out The True Source Of What You Eat Can Be Difficult

(CBS)  In the wake of banned seafood from China and years of concern over mad cow-tainted beef from Europe, many consumers are worried about where their food is coming from.

A new Consumer Reports survey shows 9 of 10 Americans want imported foods labeled with their country of origin. In 2002, Congress passed a law that mandated that all foods be labeled with their country of origin, but five years later, that regulation has only been implemented for seafood.

The Early Show consumer correspondent Susan Koeppen went to a supermarket with a food safety expert and found that figuring out where many foods come from is virtually impossible and some food labels are even misleading.

"The government guidelines right now don't require that all products be labeled where they come from," Consumer Reports scientist Dr. Urvashi Rangan said.

Right now, only seafood is required to list its country of origin and about 80 percent of the seafood sold here is imported.

"If you ask your fish monger where that fish is from, they should be able to tell you," Rangan said.

But when it comes to other foods like fruits and vegetables, consumers are often left wondering.

Now, after years of delay, the government says all foods will be required to come with country of origin labels by the end of September. But how this new law would be implemented has yet to be determined and that doesn't sit well with many consumers, who have growing concerns about tainted food from China, and for years have worried about mad cow disease because of tainted beef from Europe. Moreover, only 1 percent of imported food sold in the U.S. is inspected.

"We don't think that's enough," Rangan said. "We really feel like the FDA needs to step up inspections."

According to a Consumer Reports poll, 92 percent of Americans agree that imported foods should be labeled by their country of origin.

"We simply think knowing where your food comes from is like an ingredient or nutrition label and it's important information for consumers to make informed decisions," Rangan said.

When Koeppen walked through a typical American grocery store, some products were clearly marked, like peaches. The grapes have the American flag and say California grown. But cheese, which carries the French flag, isn't made in France — it is really made in Wisconsin. And a jar of honey says it is made in San Francisco in bold print, but it's made in Spain.

"This is certainly one example where consumers can get duped into thinking one thing when it's really another," Rangan said.

If you are looking for home-grown foods, chicken, eggs, milk, potatoes and oranges are good bets. Foods like bananas and garlic are often imports. And about 16 percent of our beef is imported as well. but until labels are standard, most consumers are in the dark and left guessing as they fill their carts.

[h55534]

The meat packers and meat institutes control the beef in this country and congress has made it easy by selling out the American people in the name of "global trade". We don't need to import beef but they can mix the leaner meat from South American countries and Canada and sell it as a quality USA product. The meat packers have money donated to Congress so that they will stay on their side. They can suppress the American farmer/rancher's price for beef because they say they can't get enough of it here...... that's not true, we just can't raise it to sell for 30 cents a pound like South American countries can.

[braggiroma]

It is completly understandable that certain items such as bananas, papayas, certain nuts, dates, etc... have to come from other countries, like the tropics, or the desert, BUT BEEF? where does our own US beef go? The way I've always understood is that, we in the United States have vasts amounts of land to raise cattle, farm animals, crops, etc... just about anything we put our minds and our hearts into; to the extent that other countries buy land in the US so that they can grow their own livestock, since the lack the space to raise them. So, when did it become necessary for us to have to import beef from other countries for our own consumption?
What about our own fishermen , what happens to all their hard work at the end of the day?
Do we also sell it to other countries and then buy the fish they catch? I don't like the idea of having to worry about the way certain places process their goods. Why? why should I have to worry about getting sick or being poisoned by the foods I have in years past purchased trustingly.
I am completly confused! This is ridiculous! How is this considered good business? And for whom? Who thinks these things up?
I know there must be huge Dollar signs behind it!

[h55534]

We can know the country of anything we put ON the body, we want to know the country of anything that goes IN the body. I'd like to go to the store and know where that can of corn, frozen peas, fresh carrots, bag of rice, etc comes from. This should without a doubt include ALL perishables, such as ALL meats, fruits and vegetables.
Furthermore, if the FDA cannot inspect all imports then it is up to the company purchasing these imports to test/make sure what they are buying is a quality product. Also stricter guidelines need to be in place that when a shipment is deferred from another country they can't ship it back as they are doing now (in hopes it can slip past the FDA a 2nd time).

[rushlimpdrug]

Hello CBs! Now this is a story that should get some investigative reporting.
Many food items that are canned and other products show only distributor locations. The consumer is left wondering where the actual ingredients, products came from.