Americans Face Risks
from Foreign Food

hanks to free trade and an open borders ideology that promotes commercial interests ahead of people's health, tainted food from unscrupulous Chinese businessmen killed pet cats and dogs all across America in the last two months. And an increasing flood of imports from Third World countries is sending other kinds of food intended for humans through the very same food safety net that failed to protect America's pets.

An analysis of federal trade and food import practices reveals that U.S. businessmen in a constant search for cheaper labor and cheaper ingredients are turning to countries with spotty records in sanitation and food safety. At the same time, the U.S. doesn't bother to supply entry ports with enough inspectors to make sure that imported food is safe for Americans to eat.

Associated Press reported in April that over the past five years, U.S. food makers more than doubled their business with low-cost and often unsanitary countries such as Mexico, China, and India. Those are the same countries whose shipments to the U.S. most often fail the tiny number of inspections made by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

In the case of the contaminated pet food, investigators discovered — albeit too late to save the health of thousands of American pets — that producers of animal feed throughout China secretly mix their product with a chemical called melamine, a cheap additive that acts like protein in chemical tests, even though it provides no nutritional value.

"Many companies buy melamine scrap to make animal feed, such as fish feed," said Ji Denghui, general manager of the Fujian Sanming Dinghui Chemicial Company, which sells melamine. He told the New York Times that he doesn't think China has a law against it.

"Probably not. No law or regulation says, 'don't do it,' so everyone does it. The laws in China are like that, aren' they?" he said.

Melamine is made from coal and is used to make plastic and fertilizer. American law forbids its use in any food product.

In China, the product is mixed with wheat gluten, which is used for many kinds of food. The FDA banned imports of wheat gluten from China after reports that more than 14,000 cats and dogs were sickened and some killed by packaged food from American pet food makers who bought the poisoned wheat gluten.

Some of the contaminated Chinese wheat gluten was used in feed sent to hog farms in eight states.

China, like many other Third World countries, has a terrible record of food safety. Scandals have erupted involving baby milk formulas, soy sauce made from human hair, and fish soaked in calligraphy ink to improve the color.

In 2001, the U.S. imported about $4.4 billion worth of foreign ingredients processed from plants or animals. By last year, the total jumped to $7.6 billion, a 73 percent increase, according to AP. Other food and drink imports rose from $38.3 billion to $63 billion, up 65 percent.

But U.S. political elites, not wanting to disrupt or impede the free flow of goods across borders, provided only enough inspectors to check about 1 percent of the 8.9 million shipments of food in fiscal year 2006.

One inspector said he never even examined food ingredients.

"I don't ever remember working on ingredients," said former FDA official Carl R. Nielson. He told AP that his job was to make sure field inspectors checked the right imports. But not ingredients. "That was the lowest priority, a low priority."

Food ingredients are listed on food packages and include a multitude of chemicals that most Americans would be unable to recognize, much less identify their country of origin.

In most cases, companies that import the products don't have to prove they are safe.

"Unless there's a known problem, it's going to fly through [the border]," Nielson told AP.

In the past year, the few inspections carried out by FDA officials did result in some foreign products not being allowed into the country, including 650 food or drink shipments from China.

The country with the most refused products was India. In 2006 the U.S. imported $118 million worth of food products from India.

But at least 98.7 percent of all food imports enter easily without inspections.

"FDA doesn't have enough resources or control over this situation presently," said Mike Doyle, director of the University of Georgia's Center for Food Safety.

In an effor to reassure the public, the FDA says it conducts "risk based" inspections, which means that the agency focuses inspections on specific types of foods it believes are most likely to cause health problems.

But critics are skeptical.

"Whenever they say 'risk-based' approach, it often means they don't have enough staff to actually do the job. They're doing triage. They're trying to hit what is most important to inspect, but they are missing a lot," said Caroline Smith DeWaal, director of food safety at the Center for Science in the Public Interest.

Some fear that America's increasing reliance on foreign food products poses a serious risk of terrorism.

"You don't have to be a Ph. D. to figure out that ... if someone were to put some type of a toxic chemical into a product that's trusted, that could do a lot of damage before it is detected," warned Doyle.