China

A Real Food Safety Investigation?

By Austin Ramzy | @austinramzy | December 9, 2008 | +

Beijing has announced it is launching a four-month joint investigation by nine government departments into illegal food additives. The vice minister of health said the government is taking this step in response to the tainted baby formula scandal. So far six children have died and nearly 300,000 were sickened from drinking powdered milk that contained melamine, an industrial chemical that can cause kidney problems when consumed. Unscrupulous producers are suspected of adding it to watered down milk to make it appear more nourishing.

The scandal was made public three months ago, and some officials new about it much earlier. There were even reports of infants developing problems from formula a year ago. As I wrote last month, the discovery of melamine in animal feed means that it has likely spread to other parts of the food chain including meat and eggs. Now the government says it will test “protein rich foods.”

“It was not a single case that banned chemicals were added in foods,”  vice minister of health Chen Xiaohong said, according to Xinhua, the state-run news service. “We need to address this problem as quickly as possible.”

So, does three or more months later count as “as quickly as possible?”

Xinhua says the results “of the investigation will be released to the public after it is completed in March.” So what happens in the very likely event they find more tainted products? Let’s hope that news won’t be delayed until March, too.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has come under criticism for not revealing the names of domestically produced baby formulas it found to contain melamine. The Associated Press finally forced the agency to reveal the information through a Freedom of Information Act request. The FDA also took heat for deciding to restrict the import of some foods from China more than a month after the scandal broke.

What will China’s do if the government comes under similar pressure for its slow response? Here’s a clue: this week a court in Hebei refused to accept a lawsuit by the families of children sickened and killed by the tainted milk. The court said they have to wait, A.P. reported, because the government is still investigating.

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  • johnsmith9876

    My crystal ball says that the end result is banning of all foreign food products in China, and the legalization of melamine as food enhancement.

    Melamine is a magical food additive discovered by China scientists. It should be widely used in China as all Chinese are immune to it. Foreigners may be harmed by the product, but not Chinese. Just like lead paint. This will give China a great competitive advantage over its enemies.

    The calling for boycott of French goods is just a start of banning foreign goods. The government will quickly endorse such proposal, and expand it to all western countries. It will be implemented fully when Obama meets Dalai in the White House, or when Dalai addresses UN General Assembly, or visiting the QE II in her palace.

    This banning of imported food stuff will be complemented with opposing the Western pressure of buying cheap goods from China. China will stop all export of food stuff and manufactured goods to western countries, saving all the food for Chinese people. And, of course, this will be call the free trade for China, as China will be tailoring its trade towards 1.3 billion people, the largest market in the world. For the same reason, China has the freest Internet in the world.

  • globalpulse

    Check out the Global Pulse video on this, showing how different TV news around the world are covering the issue of the Chinese milk scandal.

    Watch it here: http://www.linktv.org/video/3050

    I’m an intern with Link TV, the nonprofit that produces Global Pulse. Interesting to see how the rest of the world is reporting on the news.

    -Alison

  • johnsmith9876

    All western media are just biased when they report the melamine story. They only show the kids got sick from the milk, but not the millions of babies living healthily ever after drinking the milk. Since the health ones out number the dead ones at least by a million to one, they should dedicated the whole program showing only healthy babies.

  • conscienceinchina

    Want to look on someone who has completely lost his(her) physiological function on face of flushing? Come here please!

  • conscienceinchina

    I really want to know what you are thinking and feeling while you are lying and in chicanery, the “Comrade”?

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