Most Americans probably don’t know that half of the apple juice consumed in the United States is made with apples from China. And that one or more ingredients in their favorite candy bar most likely originated there. Or that the mushrooms they just ate in their salad were grown in China.
That’s because food ingredients are not required to have country- of-origin labels. However, we do have a law requiring that meat, vegetables and nuts are labeled. Amazingly though, the 2002 federal law has never been enforced. Opponents in Congress and lobbyists have delayed its implementation.
Consumers need to demand swift action from Congress. Given the mounting concerns about the safety of food from China, Congress should implement the law now.
We deserve to know what we’re eating. If we can look at a toy and see “Made in China,” we should be able to look at ingredients in food, medicine or cosmetics and see the same.
Last year, more than 100 people in Panama died after consuming cough syrup contaminated with a Chinese additive that contained diethylene glycol, a component of car antifreeze. That same toxin was later found in toothpaste.
The United States imports 40 percent of its products from China. Food is a huge part. In April, the Food and Drug Administration detained more than 100 food imports from China, ranging from dried apples to mushrooms laced with potentially dangerous pesticides. In recent days, government inspectors stopped the import of shrimp, catfish and other farm-raised seafood after traces of illegal and potentially harmful drugs were found.
These were just the products we know about. Many others never got inspected. FDA inspectors are stretched so thin they check out less than 1 percent of regulated imports. A scary thought, given the recent problems.
Caroline Smith DeWaal, director of food safety for the Center for Science in the Public Interest, says that while Chinese imports have quadrupled in the last decade, the number of government inspectors has declined.
Congress needs to provide the FDA with the resources to ensure that imports from China and elsewhere are safe. And China needs to act more responsibly and adopt and enforce modern safety regulations for food and other products.
American consumers are eating more food grown or processed in other countries, and labeling gives them a choice.
Besides, we shouldn’t have to treat a “Made in China” label as a skull-and-crossbones warning sign.
