Advocacy Group Urges Government Action on Food Exports from China

Food & Water Watch has issued a report cautioning that potentially unsafe
food from China may likely provide the next food safety scare in the United
States. Titled “A Decade of Dangerous Food Imports from China,” the report
describes “where [Chinese] food manufacturers are legendary for cutting
corners, substituting dangerous ingredients, and compromising safety in
order to boost sales.”

Noting that U.S. food safety oversight has “not remotely” kept pace with
China’s food exports that have tripled over the past decade, the report
recommends (i) “revisiting the current trade agenda to make public health,
environmental standards and consumer safety the highest priorities”; (ii)
“removing agriculture from the WTO” (World Trade Organization), which “has
been a failure for U.S. farmers and has encouraged companies to offshore
food manufacturing to places like China with low wages and weak regulatory
standards, putting consumers around the world at risk”; (iii) “restarting
the assessment of China’s poultry inspection system before considering
allowing Chinese poultry products to be exported to the United States”; (iv)
“significantly increasing FDA and USDA funding to increase inspections of
the growing volume of food imports from China and other countries,” and allowing FDA “the resources to conduct inspections in food facilities in China”; and (v) “closing the loopholes in the current country-of-origin labeling rules on meats, seafood, fruits and vegetables, and expanding the labeling requirements to cover processed food.” See Food & Water Press Release, June 8, 2011.