WAS THE CHINESE CARCINOGENIC PORK EXPORTED?

My previous post (the one before last) discussed the case of pigs in China being fed with a carconigenic chemical to make the meat leaner, so they could fetch a better price. According to news reports, the production and marketing of the chemical concerned - clenbuterol hydrochloride - had been ongoing for about 4 years (2007-2011) before this frightening practice was discovered.

At least 36 pork producers in eight provinces were caught using it and charged. But there are food safety professionals in China who suggest that there were many more - maybe even the majority of pig farmers who were using it.

And it wasn't government inspectors or officials who blew the whistle. According to China Central Television (CCTV) the clenbuterol was detected by a subsidiary company of Shuanghui Group, China's largest meat processor. This company paid a heavy price for the discovery - losses of about 100 million yuan a day after the reports surfaced. In some regions of China the group's products were taken off the shelves and elsewhere, customers stopped buying them for a while.

But this company also exports frozen food all over the world - various pork products, other meats, and frozen fruit and vegetables (check its website). Because of the huge scale of its operations, it most likely sources its pork from several suppliers, not all of which may do such good testing. Also, the practice of the company prior to this scandal (now changed) was to only require inspection of pigs at random - not every single pig it accepted for processing. This means that many got through without being caught.

What we don't know then, is whether some of this "carcinogenic pork" has been exported during the last four years, and may, in fact, have landed on our table if we bought Shuanghui frozen pork products, though through no fault of the company itself. There was no way we ourselves could have known by looking at or smelling the products.

To your good health,

TSF

CHINA DEATH PENALTY FOR TAINTING PORK

Researching and writing The Safe Food Handbook, changed the way I myself eat. One of the main changes: I stopped eating food imported from China. The more I delved into food production and processing in China - a country which is an increasingly important source of food to the U.S., Canada and other nations - the more I became concerned about whether it was safe to eat.

Overall, I became increasingly convinced that there just isn't enough value placed on the safety of consumers at all levels - food producers, processors, and even at the level of government officials such as safety inspectors. It's not only a matter of short-cuts being used in food production and processing, which result in contaminated food. There are also too many instances of conscious introduction of often life-threatening contaminants into food to make a quick profit. The Safe Food Handbook calls this practice "food terrorism." Both these reasons are why I now avoid Chinese imports when I shop.

However, intermittently a few of these food tainting scandals in China are exposed and publicized. When this happens, and those involved are brought to trial, the penalties are very stiff. Remember the melamine-tainted milk scandal in 2006-2007, which affected both human and pet food in the U.S. as well as other countries? The two men who were most responsible were sentenced to death. And Sanlu, the company involved, went bankrupt.

A more recent case concerns tainted pork - which did not become such an international issue. In March, it was discovered that a number of pig farmers in eight provinces in China were adding clenbuterol hydrochloride - also known as "lean meat chemical" to pig feed to produce leaner pork. This chemical is carcinogenic to humans.

It turned out that a business had been set up to produce the chemical in 2007 for just that purpose. The owners of the company were making huge profits. This means that dangerous pork had been on the market in China for quite some time before it was discovered. One of the reasons it took so long is reportedly because there was collusion of certain government animal health inspectors and food safety officials.

In the end, news reports say that 113 people were sentenced, with one of the producers of the chemical given the death penalty, the other a life sentence. I was surprised that the 36 pig farmers charged, got off so lightly, most just with probation or less than a year in jail. But I would guess that it was realized that they were just the tip of the iceberg: many more had probably used this chemical.

All these stiff sentences do not seem to deter others from trying similar get-rich quick schemes at the expense of the consumer. Checking of imported goods at the U.S. end by budget-strapped agencies is not enough to always catch tainted foods. I don't want to be one of those consumers paying the price.

To your good health,

TSF