Where Does Dinner Come From?

(CBS)  The grocery chain Wegman's has gotten a flood of questions from shoppers lately, concerned about foods from China and elsewhere, CBS News transportation and consumer safety correspondent Nancy Cordes reports.

"My favorite is the woman who said that 'I want to know what the pig ate before it became a pork chop,'" said Mary Ellen Burris, senior vice president of consumer affairs for Wegman's Food Markets.

Figuring out where your food was grown is not always easy — even for an expert like Joe Mendelson.

"We don't have a sticker, so we don't know," Mendelson said while picking up a package in a supermarket. "We don't know where this watermelon came from."

Mendelson, who works for the Center for Food Safety, says there are some rules of thumb.

"Pennsylvania is the state of the mushroom," he said. "Most greens are from California; we know bananas aren't grown in the United States … none." Most come from Central America or South America.

China supplies almost no fruit or fresh vegetables to the United States — but 64 percent of our imported vegetables come from Mexico and 21 percent from Canada.

"In theory we are supposed to be over making sure that the food safety agencies and governments of those countries are doing their job. But in reality, we can't hit all those places and we don't know," said Mendelson.

Leave the produce aisle and things get even more complicated.

"So we got the canned green beans here. Now, you are not gonna get any information where those green beans are from," Mendelson said while strolling down a produce aisle. "You got 'packed from fresh green beans.' Well, one would hope that green beans in the can are packed from actual green beans!"

Seafood the only product that must by law have a country-of-origin label.

"Here we go: farm-raised shrimp from Ecuador," Mendelson said. "Farm-raised shrimp from South America is something, frankly, you should be cautious about."

Since the scares over pet food and toothpaste, Wegman's has been pressing suppliers for more details on ingredients and scheduling more inspections of foreign farms.

"There are good suppliers in China and not-so-good suppliers in China and Vietnam and the rest of the world," said Burris. "It is our responsibility to know the difference."

Fresh produce from abroad is a necessity, she adds, when Americans want it year-round — and they want it cheap.

[vermonter52]

If mfg have to list the ingredients and nutrional value of foods on labels now ..... it seems pretty simple to also require it to state where it came from.

The bottled water we drink must in most states list the water source - so why not food.

Then we can all make our own choices of what we buy and what we eat.

[dragonasbreath]

We need to know where our food comes from. Yes, so we can tell if it came from China or India.
But also so we can tell if it came from Califorina or Florida or the farmer next door, and it would be nice to be told if it came from a factory or family farm.
It helps people to be responsible for their own health, and well as knowing if they are assisting the econmy they are living in, or someone elses.
The sad thing is htat we need to make a law telling us where our food is coming from - and enabling us to check and see what kind of fertilizers and pesticides are being used - such at the now-banned DDT.

[erasmus6]

Where I live there are stickers on the fruit or signs saying where it came from.

[cmp271]

This is why Wegman's Food Market is doing better than any other food store chain. I shop there all the time and have confidence they look out for the customer. It is surprising any of our food comes from China. What about their people, do they have enough food?

As for Pennsylvania, they need a new Governor, has the state opened back up yet?? Talk about a display of unreasonable power, sounds like something Spitzer would try on NY, he wouldn't get away with it though! Democrats, all they want is power!

[rushlimpdrug]

"We don't know where this watermelon came from.%u201D
Mendelson, who works for the Center for Food Safety must be one wako moron if he can't figure out where the watermelon comes from. Center for Food Safety needs to hire people with BRAINS.

[erasmus6]

"Where does dinner come from?"

Never mind dinner, we are talking breakfast, lunch, dinner and all snacks come from China.
PATHETIC!

[rushlimpdrug]

"Pennsylvania is the state of the mushroom," he said

correction:
Pennsylvania is in a state of mushroom.

[lochlan-2009]

You would think that someone would make a site for the public to go to so we can see which companies are making their food in the U.S. and which are importing and from where. If anyone knows of suck a site, please post it, because I'm more then happy to pay a little extra to get my food without phermaldahyde.

[marklyn2]

In your report on food you said there are no bananas grown in the United States. This is false.

Bananas are grown commercially in Hawaii. I also have lots growing in my yard!

[erasmus6]

There are quite often addresses, email addresses and toll free numbers on most food packaging, at least in Canada there is, so if you want information on the food start writing, emailing and phoning! And keep doing it until they have the answers.