*U.S. market flooded with foods unfit for humans, tainted with
carcinogens, pesticides, bacteria, drugs*

Posted: May 27, 2007
FDA

WASHINGTON – While Americans are still recovering from a scandal over
poison pet foods imported from China, FDA inspectors report tainted food
imports intended for American humans are being rejected with increasing
frequency because they are filthy, are contaminated with pesticides and
tainted with carcinogens, bacteria and banned drugs.

Last month, like most months, China topped the list of countries whose
products were refused by the FDA – and that list includes many
countries, including Mexico and Canada, who export far more food
products to the U.S. than China.

Some 257 refusals of Chinese products were recorded in April. By
comparison, only 140 were from Mexico and only 23 from Canada.

Refused by the FDA in April because they were "filthy":

* salted bean curd cubes in brine with chili and sesame oil
* dried apple
* dried peach
* dried pear
* dried round bean curd
* dried mushroom
* olives
* frozen bay scallops
* frozen Pacific cod
* sardines
* frozen seafood mix
* fermented bean curd

Among the foods rejected because they were contaminated with pesticides:

* frozen eel
* ginseng
* frozen red raspberry crumble
* mushrooms

Frozen catfish was stopped because it was laced with banned antibiotics.
Scallops and sardines were turned away because they were coated with
putrefying bacteria.

Toothbrushes were rejected last month because they were improperly
labeled. And last week the FDA found Chinese toothpaste contaminated
with a chemical used in antifreeze – the same chemical that killed
people in Panama last year when it turned up in cough syrup.

Just three days ago, the U.S. warned consumers not to buy or eat
imported fish labeled as monkfish, which actually may be puffer fish,
containing a potentially deadly toxin called tetrodotoxin. Two people in
the Chicago area became ill after consuming homemade soup containing the
fish. One was hospitalized due to severe illness.

The FDA is also on the lookout for vegetable proteins contaminated with
melamine – the chemical that killed American cats and dogs when it was
imported from China in pet food.

In the past year, the FDA rejected more than twice as many food
shipments from China as from all other countries combined.

Most of the time, the reason listed is simply "filthy," the official
term used when inspectors smell decomposition or gross contamination of
food.

Officials say FDA inspectors examine only a tiny percentage of the food
imported from foreign countries – about 1 percent -- meaning most of the
contaminated products make it inside the country and to the shelves of
retailers.

In the age of globalization, food imports in America are big business
and getting bigger. In 2006, they represented $64 billion – a 33 percent
increase over 2003. No country is increasing its food exports faster
than China – about 20 percent in the last year alone.

China has become America's leading supplier of apple juice used as a
food sweetener, garlic and garlic powder, sausage casings and cocoa butter.

China has also attempted to export hundreds of thousands of pounds of
chickens and poultry products to the U.S., even though it is not yet
certified to do so. Chinese exporters disguise the meat by labeling
crates "dried lily flower" or "prune slices" or "vegetables."

Despite the deliberate deception, the U.S. government is about to
certify the Chinese to export poultry legally.