German officials have launched an investigation into an animal feed supplier that allegedly distributed a dioxin-tainted additive to 25 feed manufacturers, who in turn sold products to hundreds of poultry, pork and egg farms in Lower Saxony, North Rhine-Westphalia, Thuringia, Saxony, and Brandenburg. According to media sources, Uetersen-based Harles & Jentzsch GmbH made its additive from mixed fatty acids approved only for industrial use and obtained from a biodiesel company. The Federal Ministry for Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection (BMELV) has since reported that some additive samples contained 77 times the approved limit for dioxin, an industrial byproduct allegedly linked to cancer, although the agency has not received any health notifications related to consumer products. The revelation has drawn international attention, with South Korea and Slovakia blocking German pork and poultry imports after 136,000 tainted eggs were sold to the Netherlands. As a precaution, BMELV has apparently halted sales at…
Tag Archives import/export
A recent investigation by NBC’s Today show has apparently revealed that some imported seafood “may contain toxic chemicals that can cause serious health problems.” Testing conducted by Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, and Oklahoma authorities has reportedly found contamination in shrimp, catfish, crabmeat and tilapia imported from China, Indonesia Malaysia, Taiwan and Vietnam. “Footage taken by a U.S. advocacy group of seafood being raised in Vietnam, for example, showed fish in dirty sewage water, pumped with toxic antibiotics and banned drugs just to keep them alive, boosting production and driving down costs,” states the Today report, which claims that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) tests less than 2 percent of all seafood from overseas. Those test results allegedly indicated that in 2010, 8 percent of the sampled seafood from China and 16 percent from Taiwan was tainted with chemicals and drugs prohibited in the U.S. food supply. In response, FDA released…
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has released an 88-page report that claims better collaboration is needed among the four federal agencies overseeing live animal imports to reduce the risk of animal-related diseases coming into the United States. According to GAO, more than 1 billion live animals were imported into America from 2005 through 2008, but “gaps” in the statutory and regulatory framework could allow animal and zoonotic diseases to “emerge anywhere and spread rapidly.” GAO reviewed statutes, visited ports of entry and surveyed the Department of Health and Human Services’ Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Department of the Interior’s Fish and Wildlife Service, Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, and Department of Homeland Security’s Customs and Border Protection. The experts cited by the report identified several barriers to agency collaboration, “such as different program priorities and unclear roles and responsibilities.” GAO also found that “because each…
The United States has reportedly decided not to file an appeal from a World Trade Organization (WTO) ruling that its ban on Chinese poultry imports, imposed in 2004 upon fears of an avian flu outbreak, was illegal. According to a news source, this ends the trade dispute. While the legislative ban expired within five years, under current U.S. law, the U.S. Department of Agriculture cannot allow poultry imports unless the foreign country’s food safety procedures are deemed equivalent to those used in the United States. A 2009 appropriations bill included this provision despite lobbying by U.S. trade organizations against it. See FoodNavigator-USA.com, October 27, 2010. Meanwhile, WTO has apparently decided to open to the public the second hearing on a complaint filed by Canada and Mexico, challenging the U.S. promulgation of country-of-origin labeling for cattle and hog imports. The parties reportedly requested an open hearing, which will take place December…
A World Trade Organization (WTO) panel has determined that the United States has violated its trade obligations by refusing to allow Chinese chicken parts into the U.S. market, an action that was apparently taken in a 2009 federal spending bill that denied the use of any U.S. Department of Agriculture funding to establish or implement any measure that would allow the importation. The law extended a five-year U.S. ban on Chinese chicken that was imposed during a bird flu outbreak. While the WTO can sanction countries that violate trade rules, this could take several years because the United States has the option to appeal the verdict. According to a news source, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative has indicated that the restrictions were temporary and are due to expire soon. See USA Today, September 29, 2010.
Concerned about certified-organic agricultural interests in his state and consumer confidence in the “organics” label, Senator Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) has called on Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to “ensure that foreign imports, especially from China, meet the same high standards as domestically produced organic products.” In his September 20, 2010, letter, Schumer refers to media accounts questioning the validity of organic claims for Chinese agricultural exports and a U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) audit that revealed “potential problems with oversight of Chinese-produced organic products.” Schumer urges the agency “to review its system of oversight for foreign certifiers, especially those operating in China,” to ensure that current practices comply with U.S. standards. Schumer states, “[G]iven China’s extremely poor track record on ensuring the safety and quality of its products, it is imperative that USDA thoroughly scrutinize its program to certify Chinese organic products to determine if it is managed and funded appropriately.”…
Federal officials have indicted executives of a German import company, a Chinese national and a number of companies, charging them with importing honey from China into the United States by illegal means that avoided the payment of duties and allowed product adulterated with antibiotics to enter the country. U.S. v. Wolff, No. 08-417 (N.D. Ill., filed August 31, 2010). The honey was purportedly shipped through other countries, such as South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, India, the Philippines, Indonesia and Russia, mislabeled and then shipped to the United States, thus avoiding some $78 million in anti-dumping duties applicable to Chinese-origin honey. The conspiracy allegedly began in early 2002 and ended in early 2009. The indictment includes 44 counts of illegal activity, including falsifying documents and placing into interstate commerce food with unsafe additives, specifically, the antibiotics norfloxacin and ciprofloxacin. Meanwhile, a coalition of honey producers has reportedly called on the industry to…
One of the editors of this collection of essays about how to protect consumers when food and products freely cross international borders is Adam Finkel, a former senior enforcement official at the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. The book is “a direct outgrowth” of a 2009 Penn Law School conference that brought together leading scholars and analysts to discuss import safety. Among the authors are professors in law, economics, political science, criminology, engineering, psychology, risk assessment, and business. The overall tone of the work is to find innovative ways to ensure product safety with a combination of effective “public action and private inspections, public and private standard-setting, and a degree of dependence on consumers to take some responsibility for their own safety.” The essays are grouped under four headings: “Perspectives on the Problem,” “International Trade Institutions,” “Toward Smarter Regulation,” and “Leveraging the Private Sectors.” The authors discuss the massive scale…
The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld, in part, the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) denial of objections filed to its final rule revoking all residues of the pesticide carbofuran permitted on or in raw and processed foods. Nat’l Corn Growers Ass’n v. EPA, No. 09-1284 (D.C. Cir., decided July 23, 2010). EPA revoked the carbofuran “tolerances” after notice-and-comment rulemaking because it determined that aggregate dietary exposure to residues of carbofuran is “not safe” and because exposure to the chemical in drinking water exceeded “the level of concern with respect to both children and adults.” This action effectively banned its use on both domestic and imported food for human consumption. The U.S. company that makes the pesticide and several trade organizations filed objections to the revocation and a hearing request, which EPA denied. While the objectors had participated in the rulemaking proceeding, they attempted to either introduce new evidence during the…
The Catfish Farmers of America (CFA) has reportedly released a commissioned report that evaluates the human health risks associated with catfish consumption. Presented to lawmakers and backed by Senate Agriculture Committee Chair Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.), the report identifies several major hazards for aquaculture fish, including “pathogenic microorganisms, antimicrobial/drug residues, and environmental chemicals.” In particular, the findings cite regulatory surveillance testing that revealed illegal antibiotics, drugs and other chemicals in imported fish but not in the domestic aquaculture supply. “The use and resulting presence of these antibiotics can cause microorganisms to gradually become resistant to the antibiotics and their ability to treat human infections is thereby decreased,” states Exponent, Inc.’s Center for Chemical Regulation and Food Safety, which authored the report. The report thus recommends that freshwater aquaculture “should have an inspection system that differs from other seafood systems,” with an emphasis on “prevention of contamination across the entire catfish production,…
