Each day, government officials worldwide are announcing that more and more Chinese food products contain melamine. The good news is that someone is testing all the products, obvious or not, for melamine contamination. The Voice of America reported that latest products recalled include Koala brand chestnut and chocolate flavored cookies, Nabisco Ritz cracker cheese sandwiches and rice crackers. The lesson here is that nothing is safe. Rice crackers contain milk? Even I wasn’t expecting that. Time to be extra careful.
Tag: melamine
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Don’t Follow the White Rabbit
A few days ago, I spotted this post: Tainted Milk in China; No Threat in US. However, that headline is not entirely accurate. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued a Health Information Advisory that “there is no known threat of contamination of infant formula manufactured by companies that have met the requirements to sell such products in the United States.”
- No Known Threat. First, “no known threat” is not the same as “no threat.” We are talking about milk production here and not terrorism. Some farmer is not going to release a video threatening to poison the milk supply with melamine. So, the government and the public, more often than not, will not become aware of specific threats to the food supply until someone has already been seriously injured or killed.
- Infant Formula. Secondly, the Health Information Advisory was limited to the contamination of infant formula and not to other milk or milk-based food products. So, while infant formula may be “safe,” that doesn’t mean that melamine contamination posed no threat in the United States. In fact, right after I read that, my immediate thought was to wait and see. I did not believe that melamine contamination was an isolated incident. However, I wasn’t expecting the situation to unravel that quickly. Today, the FDA announced the recall of my beloved White Rabbit creamy candy (å°ç™½å…”奶糖) because of melamine contamination. Fortunately, I had not indulged in those in quite a few years. The FDA also announced the recall of Mr. Brown instant coffee and milk tea, also because of melamine contamination.
- Met the Requirements. Finally, the FDA didn’t say that all infant formula was not knowingly unsafe. (Yes, that is a double negative, but not knowingly unsafe is not the same as safe.) Instead, the FDA limited its declaration to infant formula manufactured by companies that have met the requirements to sell such products in the United States. So, infant milk formula produced by companies that have followed applicable laws and regulations is not knowingly unsafe. But, we really have no idea which companies are following the “requirements to sell such products in the United States” now, do we? Is the Health Information Advisory less reassuring than when you first read it?
This melamine contamination issue is very serious because there is no meaningful way to distinguish between safe and unsafe food products. Take for example the Mr. Brown instant coffee and milk tea recall. King Car Food Industrial Co. Ltd. produces Mr. Brown instant coffee and milk tea. King Car is a Taiwanese company that used a non-dairy creamer manufactured by Shandong Duqing Inc., a Chinese company. Let the implications of that sink in a bit. First, the melamine contamination scandal implicates products made by companies outside of China. Secondly, the source of contamination was a non-dairy creamer. So, either the “non-dairy” wasn’t really non-dairy, or products other than milk are also contaminated. Yikes. So, even if you wanted to boycott food products manufactured in China, you will not necessarily be safer because companies located outside of China may be using China-sourced ingredients.
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Beijing Olympics Goodwill Goes Poof
I think all the goodwill generated by the Beijing Olympics has just disappeared.
- China’s Dairy Woes Widen. Wall Street Journal.
- China Milk Scandal Widens as Melamine Found in Yogurt. Bloomberg.
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Melamine Contamination in Infant Milk Powder
Last year, Caroline Smith Dewaal of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, appeared on Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees and stated, “We see the pet food recall as a warning sign for the government that they need to do more to protect the food supply. It could easily happen to an ingredient used in human food as well.” Now, 17 months later, the warning sounds more like a prediction.
- Chinese milk powder contaminated with melamine sickens 1,253 babies. Times Online.
- Tainted Chinese Milk Kills Second Child. CNN.
- China Finds Banned Chemical at Baby Milk Powder Factory Linked to Sanlu. Forbes.
One incidence of melamine contamination may be an “isolated incident. However, we now have two data points. A trend, perhaps? This time, we don’t have to search for melamine on Google to figure out what it is.
In a prior post on melamine contamination, a reader suggested that I look at Zhou Qing’s What Kind of God: A Survey of the Current Safety of China’s Food. The translated excerpts made my stomach turn. I will never view Chinese food the same way again, and neither will you.
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Rogue in Vogue
New York Times: An Export Boom Suddenly Facing a Quality Crisis. Hoping to investigate why melamine contaminated so much pet food, investigators from the Food and Drug Administration spent two weeks in China this month. […] After United States investigators left, China issued a statement asking the United States not to punish other exporters of food ingredients for the misdeeds of a few rogue companies, and not to let this become a trade quarrel.
Somehow I am not convinced that only a few “rogue” companies were at fault. Nor was I convinced that the abuses at Abu Ghraib were the work of a few “rogue” soldiers. In both situations, the problem was that the culture and the environment permitted, and perhaps encouraged, such misdeeds to occur.
Now, what of this trade quarrel? The danger for all parties involved in the Chinese export trade isn’t a trade quarrel. Trade disputes are problems between nations that inevitably get resolved after protracted negotiations and political posturing. No, the real problem here is that not a quarrel with the U.S. government, but with the U.S. public. How do you resolve a quarrel with consumers who refuse to purchase your products? This is the type of situation that get ugly fast and not just for Chinese exporters.
How will American importers of Chinese products react? Knowing that the products you import are basically unregulated by the Chinese government, what steps must you take to ensure the safety of your own merchandise? Because all the dollars and cents you are saving by importing from China can vanish in a flash when your product sickens or kills someone. Punitive damages anyone?