China strains to police quality: Report says U.S. needs better system to inspect safety of food imports - (Wall Street Journal)
October 5, 2007 – 9:02 pmWashington — Congressional investigators, after a two-week fact-finding trip, were cited as concluding that China’s food safety system is broken and the U.S. needs a stronger inspection system to keep out tainted products.
The Chinese food production relies on “hundreds of millions of private farms,” and intermediaries then funnel food products into small-operation processors, according to a report set to be released today by the House Energy and Commerce investigations subcommittee. As a result, the Chinese government, with regulatory power split among central and local levels, has “minimal ability” to ensure product safety.
While the Chinese government appears determined to avoid food-safety disasters, the report says, its effectiveness is limited. Exporters without government-issued certificates have evaded the Chinese inspection system and brought to the U.S. such foods as melamine-contaminated wheat flour, which triggered a large pet-food recall in the U.S. earlier this year.
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