http://www.theweekmagazine.com/news/articles/news.aspx?ArticleID=2144
Each month, federal inspectors turn back tons of tainted food imported from
abroad, but experts say that far more gets through. How worried should we be
about our food supply?
6/15/2007
How much food does the U.S. import?
A massive amount, and it’s been growing every year for the past decade. Last
year, some 130 countries, led by Canada, Mexico, and China, shipped $60 billion
worth of food into the U.S., double the amount being imported five years ago.
Some of these imports arrive tainted with salmonella, E. coli, the bacteria that
causes botulism, banned antibiotics, and even chemicals used to make plastics,
fire retardant, and antifreeze. Americans last year were struck with 76 million
cases of food-related illnesses, and experts say imported food was probably
responsible for a good many of them. “The uncontrolled distribution of low-
quality imported food,” says food industry consultant Peter Kovacs, “poses a
grave threat to public health.”
Doesn’t the U.S. inspect food imports?
Yes, but only a small fraction. Federal inspectors last year examined only 20,662
of the 8.9 million shipments of food that arrived in U.S. ports. The Food and
Drug Administration has 625 inspectors devoted to monitoring foreign food
shipments; that’s about 20 percent fewer than the number on the job five years
ago, though there are 50 percent more imports now. Even when inspectors find
something wrong, the FDA has no power to punish those responsible. “If people
really knew how weak the FDA program is, they would be shocked,” says William
Hubbard, a 27-year veteran of the agency who retired in 2005.
How much contaminated food gets in?
Literally tons, judging from what’s found in the shipments the FDA does inspect.
In recent months, inspectors turned up Italian olives tainted with botulism-
causing bacteria, Mexican basil contaminated with salmonella, and scallops and
sardines from China coated with putrefying bacteria. In winter months, billions of
dollars worth of fruits and vegetables are imported from Latin America, where
farm workers toil in unsanitary conditions and where outbreaks of salmonellosis
and other food-based ailments claim thousands of lives each year. U.S.
inspectors check out thousands of tons of food each year, but that’s only about
0.1 percent of all imports. That’s why many believe it’s only a matter of time
before tainted imports cause a mass outbreak of food poisoning. “This is an issue
that’s going to explode,” says Richard George, a food specialist at St. Joseph’s
University in Philadelphia. George and other experts are especially concerned
about imports from China.
Why is the food from China so worrisome?
The Chinese food system operates with virtually no oversight, and health
standards are notoriously lax. Food processing plants typically draw water from
sources contaminated with sewage or industrial waste, and few factories require
workers to wash their hands after using the bathroom. Chinese produce farmers
often fertilize their crops with human waste and spray them with dangerous
pesticides. Farm-raised Chinese shrimp feed on chicken droppings, which fall from
coops set on screens above shrimp ponds; the droppings are often full of
antibiotics. Recognizing that such horror stories threaten their export boom, the
Chinese recently announced new food and drug regulations. But many experts
doubt China is capable of effectively regulating millions of food producers.
What is the U.S. doing about this?
The FDA does screen out some tainted food, but because of the sheer volume,
much of it gets through. In the first four months of 2007, the U.S. refused 298
food shipments from China, far more than from any other country. Some were
kicked back because they contained banned ingredients, such as the dried apples
preserved with nitrofuran, a carcinogen. Chinese poultry is barred in the U.S., but
inspectors recently found chickens in crates labeled “dried lily flower,” “prune
slices,” and “vegetables.” In April, inspectors in several Southern states
discovered banned antibiotics in 700,000 pounds of frozen Chinese catfish. “If it’s
coming into Alabama,” says Alabama agricultural commissioner Ron Sparks, “it’s
coming in everywhere else.”
Should we just ban food from China?
That’s not going to happen. China is the sole or dominant exporter of some of
the most common food ingredients. It controls 80 percent of the world’s supply
of the widely used preservative ascorbic acid, for instance, and nearly all of the B
vitamins added to many processed foods. China also is one of the world’s largest
exporter of fruits and vegetables, and without them, much of the produce we
buy year-round would only be available in season, and would be far more
expensive. U.S. trade officials and domestic food manufacturers warn that any
ban on Chinese food imports would invite retaliation by China. “Stopping Chinese
imports would have a very negative effect on U.S. companies and consumers,”
says Rick Martin, president of Red Chamber/Meridian Products, the largest U.S.
shrimp processor.
So what can be done?
Consumer groups want tougher regulation, of course. Even some food producers
have called for more federal oversight, reasoning that if consumers lose faith in
the safety of the food supply, their companies will suffer. In the meantime, many
companies have stepped up their own oversight of the imported food they sell.
Earthbound Farm, which distributed spinach that was linked to a salmonella
outbreak last year, now spends millions to inspect their foreign suppliers’
packaging plants and even the water their suppliers spray on crops. Wal-Mart
requires its foreign suppliers to meet U.S. safety standards. Kraft Foods and
retailing giant Costco require suppliers to list the origin of all the ingredients that
go into their processed foods. “In the absence of a good food-safety system run
by the government,” says Costco vice president Jeff Lyons, “we supplement it
with our own.”
Meet the new czar
Responding to public alarm over food safety, the Bush administration in May put
a high-ranking FDA official, Dr. David Acheson, in charge of protecting the nation’
s food safety—dubbing him the “food czar.” The 51-year-old infectious-disease
specialist has vowed to create “a visionary strategy for food safety” in which the
government tries to prevent food crises rather than merely react to them. But
Acheson has surprisingly little power. Under current regulations, the FDA can only
recommend that a manufacturer or importer recall tainted food, except for baby
formula; companies are under no obligation to comply. Acheson is also facing
budget limitations. Congress beefed up the foreign-food inspection budget after
9/11, but that funding was not renewed. Now congressional Democrats are
seeking a $183 million increase in the food-safety budget. The Bush
administration hasn’t officially signed on, but Acheson sounds as if he’s aboard.
“You want change?” Acheson says. “It’s going to cost.”
