China Stepping up Testing for Chemicals in Food

[lycheng]

Are there anyone following the tainted pet food scandal? The revelation that contaminated wheat gluten from China may be the culprit somehow doesn't surprise me. Sure, I'm concerned about "China-bashing" in the media, but many overseas Chinese, including my family, have expressed concerns about the liberal use of chemicals in food manufactured in China.

So now it appears the Chinese government is stepping up inspections (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/04/world/asia/04cnd-petfood.html?hp) of wheat gluten in their own country.

Thanks to western media for pursuing this..... there I said it! :p

lycheng

[Hater Depot]

What is that concerns people there so much? Have there been well-publicized incidents in China, or is it just a general suspicion the way people always complain about their tap water?

[atlasien]

I think their version of the FDA needs a lot of improvement. This episode in 2004 raised awareness too.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/china/story/0,7369,1196996,00.html
Chinese baby milk blamed for 50 deaths
Fake infant formulas provide little or no nutrition

Jonathan Watts in Beijing
Wednesday April 21, 2004
The Guardian

At least 50 Chinese babies have died and more than 100 are severely malnourished after being fed fake milk formula, it was reported yesterday amid growing concerns about counterfeit food and medical products in the poorly regulated country.

The Chinese prime minister, Wen Jiabao, has ordered an investigation and promised "severe punishment" for those responsible for manufacturing and distributing the bogus products, which contained only 6% of the vitamins, minerals and protein needed for a growing infant.

[atlasien]

Yikes, this is much worse. I heard about the mass cough syrup poisoning in Panama but I didn't know it was traced back to China.


http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/06/world/06poison.html?hp

From China to Panama, a Trail of Poisoned Medicine
A Poison’s Path

Many of them are children, poisoned at the hands of their unsuspecting parents.

The syrupy poison, diethylene glycol, is an indispensable part of the modern world, an industrial solvent and prime ingredient in antifreeze.

It is also a killer. And the deaths, if not intentional, are often no accident.

Over the years, the poison has been loaded into all varieties of medicine — cough syrup, fever medication, injectable drugs — a result of counterfeiters who profit by substituting the sweet-tasting solvent for a safe, more expensive syrup, usually glycerin, commonly used in drugs, food, toothpaste and other products.

Toxic syrup has figured in at least eight mass poisonings around the world in the past two decades. Researchers estimate that thousands have died. In many cases, the precise origin of the poison has never been determined. But records and interviews show that in three of the last four cases it was made in China, a major source of counterfeit drugs.

Panama is the most recent victim. Last year, government officials there unwittingly mixed diethylene glycol into 260,000 bottles of cold medicine — with devastating results. Families have reported 365 deaths from the poison, 100 of which have been confirmed so far. With the onset of the rainy season, investigators are racing to exhume as many potential victims as possible before bodies decompose even more.

Panama’s death toll leads directly to Chinese companies that made and exported the poison as 99.5 percent pure glycerin.

Forty-six barrels of the toxic syrup arrived via a poison pipeline stretching halfway around the world. Through shipping records and interviews with government officials, The New York Times traced this pipeline from the Panamanian port of Colón, back through trading companies in Barcelona, Spain, and Beijing, to its beginning near the Yangtze Delta in a place local people call "chemical country."
[...]

[maogirl]

and yet i'm still alive and will live to be 100 (and look 60) while smoking and drinking every day while you all will die of cancer or heart disease.

life is funny that way.

[awong]

I dunno, but does all this regulation in the US make out immune system weaker?

[Hater Depot]

Our excessive concern for cleanliness certainly does.

[maogirl]

i know singaporeans have a pretty weak immune system compared to the rest of us parasite-infested freaks because it's so clean there.

some singaporean parents i know deliberately feed their kids street food when they holiday in malaysia and thailand so the kids will build up some parasites.

i mean, you gotta think...the phils is one of the dirtiest places ever for food, i used to eat ice cream with maggots and flies in them and shit, and it's one of the few countries that wasn't hit with SARS.

hk is actually pretty clean, it's a good thing i'm going back to the phils for a week to re-energize my parasites

[JadeDragon]

Yup, I don't get sick very often either. Hawker fare is totally the best for building up immunity. All that dirt and dust being tossed around by passing cars at the roadside stalls...Mmm...

Have a good trip, MG! Don't forget the balut!

[awong]

my mom says the same thing about being from cuba...always saying that all the ones that grew up dont get sick and are always healthy. But I dont get sick that often...even with all that dust in my house and the mess it is, that my mom cant stand, my cousin born here with her 3 kids are always sick, but my siblings and I arent.

Usually dont use medicine either unless its really bad, but my cousin they get antibiotics all the time when they are sick...their bodies cant recover

[ellencho]

This isn't really an issue of one's immune system. It's about regular every day ingredients being contaminated with chemicals, not microbes, and making you sick.

Even if the US was the dirtiest place in the world and even if Americans had the strongest immune systems ever, chemicals like rat poison in your food would still cause deaths.

[atlasien]

Yep, nothing gives you immunity against drinking from a bottle of antifreeze you think is cough syrup...

Street hawker food is some of the healthiest food you can eat, judging from my experiences in Mexico.

1) it's cooked using high heat and then served in a very short period of time
2) preparation methods are visible to the customer
3) limited amount of space to trap rotten food

On the other hand, restaurant food could be dredged up from a slime pit and you often can't tell.

[maogirl]

damn, we're just fucking around, ellen.

there go all my jokes about gargling with rat poison and showering with acid.

thanks, jade! i hope to consume as many parasites and bacteria as possible before i come back to hk.

balut's too clean for me, i gotta get my hands on some dirty ice cream.


Street hawker food is some of the healthiest food you can eat, judging from my experiences in Mexico.


you obviously have never eaten asian street food, you poor thing.

[ellencho]

Aw, I wasn't worried about you guys - but I just pictured stupid lurker types out there reading this and getting the wrong idea.

And speaking of street food, Philly is known for these soft pretzels that street vendors sell. My first night in Philly I remember watching the news and they showed a story on how gross those vendors are. They showed one vendor peeing into a cup and then tossing the piss out onto the street behind him. Another one was shooting snot rockets.

Even if you're brave enough to buy one of those, I still don't understand what the appeal is. They're perpetually undercooked and they're usually served cold anyway - it's kind of like a day old bagel. Usually, when a town has a regional favorite, it's pretty good, but they've really got everyone fooled with this one.

[Lum]

What, you guys never been to Amish country? They sell produce that's supposedly fertilized with human feces and let me tell you, that shit tastes great!

[vsoy]

They're perpetually undercooked and they're usually served cold anyway - it's kind of like a day old bagel. Usually, when a town has a regional favorite, it's pretty good, but they've really got everyone fooled with this one.

I don't get it either, but I think the big appeal are the huge salt crystals that are on the soft pretzels. I usually pick them off because I just don't like salty things and it is just awful.

They're finding melanine in hog and chicken feed. There's isn't much left to eat :mad: I've heard because of cheap gluten imports, US gluten producers just can't compete and these factories are running at very low capacity. It didn't seem they could ramp up production and provide a safe supply of gluten.

[vsoy]

Looks like both Panama and China businesses were at fault.
http://www.kansascity.com/439/story/131644.html

Posted on Fri, Jun. 01, 2007

China blames Panama for tainted products
By ALEXA OLESEN
Associated Press Writer

China acknowledged it was misleading for Chinese companies to label an industrial solvent as glycerin but blamed businesses in Panama for the poison turning up in cold medicine there, killing at least 51 people.

Wei Chuanzhong, a senior official in China's product-inspection agency, also dismissed concerns about Chinese toothpaste made with the same substance - diethylene glycol.

There is "no sound evidence" to indicate that the chemical is dangerous in very low concentrations, Wei said, suggesting that the seized Chinese brands had safe amounts of the chemical.

Panama and at least three other Latin American countries have seized tens of thousands of tubes of Chinese-made toothpaste sold under the brands "Excel" and "Mr. Cool."

The United States halted all imports of Chinese toothpaste last week to test for diethylene glycol - a chemical commonly used in antifreeze and brake fluid.

Wei's remarks were China's highest-level public comment on the cold medicine case, the most disturbing in a series of scandals concerning tainted or unsafe food, medicines and other Chinese exports.

The growing international outcry has Beijing worried that its goods could be banned from overseas markets. China's dismal drug safety record was underscored this week by a Chinese court's decision to sentence to death the country's former top drug regulator.

China admits it was the source of the deadly chemical that ended up in cough syrup and other treatments but insists the chemical was originally labeled as for industrial use only.

Wei acknowledged that the Chinese manufacturer, Taixing Glycerin Factory, and the Chinese distributor, CNSC Fortune Way, "engaged in some misconduct," because they used the name "TD glycerin" for a mix of 15 percent diethylene glycol and "other substances."

Diethylene glycol, or DEG, is a thickening agent used as a low-cost - but frequently deadly - substitute for glycerin, a sweetener commonly used in drugs.

"They used the very confusing name of TD glycerin, which will mislead people to think it's glycerin," Wei said. "The markings on the package also used the name glycerin instead of TD glycerin."

But he said the Panama traders bore most of the responsibility for the deadly substance ending up in medicine.

"The Panama trader changed or altered the paperwork to say the substance was medical glycerin that met U.S. standards for use in medical products and changed the shelf life of the already expired product from one year to four years," Wei said. "The responsibility here is very clear."

His agency began investigating the matter in October at the request of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and conducted a follow-up earlier this month.

Those inquiries found that 25,020 pounds of so-called TD glycerin made by the Taixing Glycerin Factory in eastern China's Jiangsu province was sold by state-owned distributor CNSC Fortune Way to Spain's Rasfer company in July 2003 for $10,250.

Rasfer told the agency that the Chinese sellers made it clear that the material they were sold was for industrial, not medical, use.

The FDA found the material was later resold to a Panamanian company, which relabeled it as medical glycerin and changed its shelf life to four years from one. It was finally sold to Panama's national health system, which used it make cough syrup, antihistamine tablets, calamine lotion and rash ointment.

Wei, the vice minister of China's Administration for Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, said Taixing had been punished but when pressed for details, he said the company was still being investigated.

He said China would not continue to allow the use of the name TD glycerin, but no ban has been formally announced.

The first documented poisonings in Panama were reported in October, but authorities there have said that earlier cases may have gone undetected. Fifty-one people died after taking the tainted medications and 68 were hospitalized.

A slew of Chinese exports have recently been banned or turned away by U.S. inspectors including, wheat gluten tainted with the chemical melamine that has been blamed for dog and cat deaths in North America, monkfish that turned out to be toxic pufferfish, drug-laced frozen eel, and juice made with unsafe color additives.

On Tuesday, a Beijing court sentenced to death the former director of China's food and drug administration, for taking bribes in cash and gifts worth more than $832,000 in return for allowing eight companies to get around drug approval rules.

State media have reported that drugs improperly approved by Zheng's agency included an antibiotic that killed at least 10 patients last year before it was taken off the market.

[vsoy]

Now toothpaste? When there were initial concerns about antifreeze in toothpaste, the FDA was saying it was safe. I was thinking, how long before there'll be a ban?
http://www.kansascity.com/439/story/132532.html

Posted on Sat, Jun. 02, 2007

FDA: Throw away toothpaste made in China
By KEVIN FREKING
Associated Press Writer
A customer selects toothpaste in Beijing, Tuesday, May 29, 2007. The U.S. government has stopped all imports of Chinese toothpaste after reports that some products sold in Australia, the Dominican Republic and Panama were tainted with diethylene glycol, a chemical commonly used in antifreeze and brake fluid.
Ng Han Guan
A customer selects toothpaste in Beijing, Tuesday, May 29, 2007. The U.S. government has stopped all imports of Chinese toothpaste after reports that some products sold in Australia, the Dominican Republic and Panama were tainted with diethylene glycol, a chemical commonly used in antifreeze and brake fluid.

The government warned consumers on Friday to avoid using toothpaste made in China because it may contain a poisonous chemical used in antifreeze. Out of caution, the Food and Drug Administration said, people should throw away toothpaste with labeling that says it was made in China. The FDA is concerned that these products may contain diethylene glycol.

The agency is not aware of any poisoning from toothpaste in the United States, but it did find the antifreeze ingredient in a shipment at the U.S. border and at two retail stores: a Dollar Plus store in Miami and a Todo A Peso store in Puerto Rico.

Officials said they are primarily concerned about toothpaste sold at bargain retail outlets. The ingredient in question, called DEG, is used as a lower-cost sweetener and thickening agent. The highest concentration of the chemical found in toothpaste so far was between 3 percent and 4 percent of the product's overall weight.

"It does not belong in toothpaste even in small concentrations," said the FDA's Deborah M. Autor.

The FDA increased its scrutiny of toothpaste made in China because of reports of contamination in several countries, including Panama.

The agency is particularly concerned about chronic exposure to DEG in children and in people with kidney or liver disease.

Agency officials said they had no estimate of how many tubes of tainted toothpaste might have made it into the U.S.

"Our concern today is potentially about all toothpaste that comes in from China," Autor said. "Our estimate is that China makes up about $3.3 million of the $2 billion U.S. toothpaste market."

The agency also issued an import alert Friday for all dental products containing DEG. The alert means toothpaste from China will be stopped at the border, she said.

Companies that make brands previously found with DEG will have to prove the toothpaste is free of the chemical before it's allowed into the country. Meanwhile, all other brands of Chinese-made toothpaste will be stopped for testing, something the agency has been doing since May 23.

The import alert posted by the government says DEG has been improperly used in a variety of sedatives, syrups and cough medicines worldwide. Most recently, a cough syrup containing DEG resulted in more than 40 deaths in Panama last September.

The alert says the agency found DEG in three products manufactured by Goldcredit International Trading in China. The products are Cooldent Fluoride, Cooldent Spearmint and Cooldent ICE. Analysis of the products revealed they contained between 3 percent and 4 percent DEG.

The agency also found the chemical in one product manufactured by Suzhou City Jinmao Daily Chemical Co. in China. Analysis of that product, Shir Fresh Mint Fluoride Paste, found it contained about 1 percent DEG.

China's food safety problems have in recent months become a matter of international concern, a situation reflected in trade talks between Chinese and U.S. officials in Washington last week.

Most notably, on March 15, FDA learned that certain pet foods were sickening and killing cats and dogs. FDA found contaminants in vegetable proteins imported into the United States from China and used as ingredients in pet food.


FDA link on brands to toss, scroll down
http://www.fda.gov/ora/fiars/ora_import_ia6674.html

"LIST OF DENTIFRICES PRODUCTS MANUFACTURED THAT CONTAINS DIETHYLENE GLYCOL
(DEG) AND/OR ARE LABELED AS CONTAINING DIETHYLENE GLYCOL
*edited out company names and addresses to just list toothpaste brands by vsoy*
Cooldent Fluoride
Cooldent Spearmint
Cooldent ICE
Dr Cool Toothpaste
Everfresh Toohpaste
Superdent Toothpaste
Clean Rite Toothpaste
Clean Rite Toothpaste Kit
Oralmax Extreme Action Kit
Oralmax Extreme Action Pack Kit
Oral Bright Fresh Spearmint Flavor
Bright Max Peppermint Flavor
ShiR Fresh Mint Fluoride Paste

[Hater Depot]

China's dismal drug safety record was underscored this week by a Chinese court's decision to sentence to death the country's former top drug regulator.

Holy shit.

[atlasien]

Looks like a lot of the antifreeze toothpaste ended up in prisons.


http://blogs.creativeloafing.com/freshloaf/2007/06/25/toxic-toothpaste-found-in-ga-prisons/

On June 11, Georgia prison guards abruptly confiscated all tubes of Nature Mint toothpaste after they learned it had tested positive for an ingredient that has been found in antifreeze.

The state Department of Corrections distributes the 1.5-ounce tubes of toothpaste – which say, “made in China” on the back – to inmates for free.

Jim Scott, who visits his friend Neva Veitch at Metro State Prison each week, says Veitch recently told him the gritty toothpaste had made her tongue burn.

“Then a few days later she said they came around to all the women’s lockers and got all their toothpaste samples,” Scott says. “But they wouldn’t explain why.”

[...]

The toothpaste, according to the tube Scott obtained, is distributed by the Bob Barker company – the same detention facilities distributor that ships supplies to Guantanamo Bay.