China offers a plan in wake of poisoned-food scandals

Domestic consumers, not foreign press, led to China's new food-safety strategy.

from the June 8, 2007 edition

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Though food and agricultural items make up only 4 percent of China's overall exports, three recent scares have focused international attention on the unreliable quality of some Chinese products that have slipped through a weak and often corrupt regulatory system.

Pet food, which killed or sickened thousands of domestic animals in the United States, was found to contain Chinese-sourced wheat gluten contaminated with melamine, used to boost the product's apparent protein count.

At least 51 people died last year in Panama after taking cough medicine tainted by an industrial solvent, masquerading as the artificial sweetener glycerine, shipped from China. And thousands of tubes of toothpaste have been pulled from shelves in Latin America and Singapore for containing the same chemical.

In the wake of the scandals, food inspectors were this week urged to bear "political responsibility" for the quality of Chinese food exports.

"Food safety is not only related to peoples' health, but also to the country's image as well as bilateral and multilateral political relations," the state-owned China Daily quoted Li Changjian, the minister responsible for the safety of consumer goods, as saying.

The new government plan pledges to improve the inspection of food imports and exports, monitor pollution levels in food-producing regions, improve recall mechanisms, set up a food-poisoning reporting network, and establish a "farm to table" certification system, among other measures.

Whether this fresh approach to health-related problems will spread to other areas of international concern, such as the environment, is uncertain.

"How much do they want to curb pollution if that comes at the expense of economic growth?" wonders Dr. Zweig. "But there is no downside to improving food safety. This is just doing well by doing good.

"You don't want 'Made in China' to mean 'Buyer Beware.' "

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