China’s Sickening Spring; U.S. Multi-State Sprout Recall

China’s Food Contamination Nightmare:

You’ve heard “don’t drink the water” advice in regard to some foreign travel.  Well, this is a broader warning:  If you’re planning a trip to China, don’t eat anything while you’re there.  You say you get hungry without food?  Alternatively, lug some luggage full of granola bars and other healthy non-perishables.  If you think I’m kidding, you’re right.  But I was flabbergasted and horrified by the recent reports describing rampant food contamination in China.  This is of concern not only for those who travel to China; the U.S. imports many edible products and food ingredients that you may not want in your kitchen or those of the restaurants you dine at.

“To eat, drink and be merry in China is done at a risk,” says the Chicago Tribune.  The New York Times ran a lengthy article on what it called China’s “stomach-turning string of food-safety scandals this spring.”  Here were some of the catastrophes described in these articles:

- At a wedding party in a Hunan province, 286 of the 500 guests wound up going to the hospital.  What made them sick?  The culprit was pork contaminated with a steroid fed to pigs to make them grow faster and leaner.  According to the Chicago Tribune, clenbuterol, when consumed by humans in excess quantity, “can cause heart palpitations, nausea, convulsions, dizziness and vomiting.” Two other Hunan weddings resulted in hospitalizations due to food-borne illness.

- A Shanghai woman woke up in the middle of the night and went into her kitchen to put some forgotten uncooked pork into the refrigerator.  To her amazement, it was giving off a blue light!  When a similar experience was reported, experts determined that the spectacle was caused by phosphorescent bacteria.

- Farmers in Jiangsu reported that their watermelons exploded after being given too much growth hormone, used in the hopes of producing larger melons.

- China’s news media reported (also this spring) the following: “pork sold as beef after it was soaked in borax, a detergent additive, rice contaminated with cadmium,…arsenic-laced soy sauce; popcorn and mushrooms tainted with animal antibiotic; and wine diluted with sugared water and chemicals.”  Then, the article added, there were man-made eggs which were actually eggless chemicals, gelatin, and paraffin. 

Why is all this happening?  There’s a simple explanation according to the N.Y Times: “It’s cost effective.” Why doesn’t the government stop it?  Several reasons. China has nearly 500,00 food producers, most with fewer than 10 employees, which makes oversight difficult.  Since 2008, when 6 children died and about 300,000 became ill from melamine-tainted baby formula, the Chinese government has enacted tough food safety policies and  has even executed a few egregious offenders.  However, as events this spring demonstrated, these actions haven’t helped much.  According to the Chicago Tribune, “China is famous for promulgating laws that are never enforced.”  Furthermore, whistle-blowers have sometimes been imprisoned for “inciting social disorder.” Here’s yet another problem: instead of a central agency overseeing the food supply, such as our FDA, China has many agencies reporting to various ministries. And most of their inspectors are poorly trained and have little understanding of what causes food-borne illness. 

How are the Chinese people reacting to all these scandals?  The director of the Beijing office of the Global Food Safety Forum says, “Basically people now feel nothing is safe to eat….They are feeling very helpless.”

Says Prime Minister Wen Jiabao, “All of these nasty cases of food-safety problems are enough to show that lack of integrity and moral decline have become a very serious problem.”  The deceit and immorality is well-exemplified by the example of the steamed buns, a popular item in China.  For supermarket sale, workers in a filthy workshop were taking expired buns (past their sell-by date), throwing them into a vat, adding water and flour, and repackaging them to be sold as new.

Problems with Chinese foods, food ingredients, and other products (including toy trains, toothpastes, tires) go back several years, and the U.S. government has been attempting to deal with each situation. In 2007, the FDA detained shipments of 5 species of seafood (including shrimp) from China after finding that they contained 2 antibiotics and 2 antifungals that are illegal in the U.S.  In 2007, USA Today reported that the FDA greatly expanded its curtailment of some food ingredients imported from China, including ingredients used in noodles and breakfast bars.  The ingredients restricted included wheat, rice, and corn gluten; corn by-products, , and mung-bean protein. 

There may be a little light at the end of the tunnel.  Says the dean of the food sciences college at China Agricultural University in Beijing, “The situation is steadily improving.”  The New York Times  offers this reassuring comment. “China…. is bringing hundreds of standards in line with international norms.  Already, nearly half of dairy food companies have been ordered to halt production after failing to meet new licensing requirements.” 

I don’t know about you, but I’m opting for extreme caution. I’m  not vacationing in China or buying food or ingredients made in China until there are no more sickening Chinese seasons.

Sprouts Recall in Several U.S. States:

Evergreen Fresh Sprouts, LLC announced a voluntary recall of alfalfa sprouts and spicy sprouts because they have the potential to be contaminated with Salmonella. The recalled sprouts have been linked to a multistate outbreak of Salmonella infections.

As of June 27, 2011, a total of 21 individuals, including three hospitalizations, infected with an outbreak strain of Salmonella Enteritidis have been reported from five states: Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, New Jersey, and Washington.

The recalled alfalfa sprouts and spicy sprouts were distributed in Washington and Idaho by direct delivery to four distributors and three retail stores. The recalled products are coded with expiration are dates from 06/22 through 07/14. The products being recalled are the following:

• Alfalfa Sprouts, Evergreen Produce, 4 oz. bag, UPC 8 38796 00103 7.
• Alfalfa Sprouts, Evergreen Produce, 16 oz. bag, UPC 8 38796 00108 2.
• Alfalfa Sprouts, Evergreen Produce, 5 lb. bag, no UPC.
• Spicy Sprouts, Evergreen Produce, 4 oz. bag, UPC 8 38796 00102 0.
• Spicy Sprouts, Evergreen Produce, 16 oz. or 5 lb. bag, no UPC.

Consumers are urged to destroy all products. Please contact Nadine Scharf at 208-267-4258 between the hours of 8:00 a.m. and 4:30 a.m. (PST) regarding any questions about this recall.

To read about why raw sprouts are so often recalled, click here: http://shelflifeadvice.com/content/raw-sprouts-nutritious-and-dangerous

Source(s):

Nytimes.com Asia Pacific section “In China , Fear of  Fake Eggs and ‘Recycled’ Buns”

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/08/world/asia/08food.html

Chicago Tribune  “Food safety gives China a headache”

June 29, 2011

usatoday.com “FDA limits Chinese food additive imports”
http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/2007-04-30-chinese-imports-usat_N.htm

Nytimes.com Business section “China grapples with food contamination credibility crises”
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/17/business/worldbusiness/17iht-trade.4.5758498.html

fda.gov “Melamine Contamination in China”
http://www.fda.gov/NewsEvents/PublicHealthFocus/ucm179005.htm

Finding dulcinea.com “FDA Detains Contaminated Seafood from China”
http://www.findingdulcinea.com/news/health/FDA-Detains-Contaminated-Seafood-from-China.html

fda.gov “Evergreen Fresh Sprouts, LLC Voluntarily Recalls Alfalfa Sproouts and Spicy Sprouts Because of Possible Health Risk”
http://www.fda.gov/Safety/Recalls/ucm261706.htm