After Months of Denial, China Shuts Down 180 Food Processing Plants Caught Using Banned Chemicals: Problem is Very Serious

More proof that we need to de-internationalize critical parts of our food supply:

China conducted an investigation into why pet food, toothpaste and other products were contaminated. They found that substances such as formaldehyde, illegal/banned dyes, and industrial wax were being used in the production of pickles, candy, crackers and seafood, among other things.

180 factories violating rules have been shut down. An additional 152,000 factories were shut down by another Chinese agency for doing the same thing over the last year. There are still 850,000 factories (mostly small operations) that Chinese authorities need to look at.

Formaldehyde??! As a preservative??! I wonder what that will do to global cancer rates.

This is probably just the tip of the iceberg as there are many more factories that need to be looked at. At least they're not denying the problem anymore. What a mess.

U.S. Doesn't Need Chinese Ingredients or Slave Labor to Make Food Products, Toothpaste or Pet Food: We Can Manufacture All Those Products Here

Why are we exporting OUR food production capability to China, which has a very checkered history of food contamination in recent memory?

We should be growing, producing and making our own foods, pet foods, and toothpaste HERE, regardless of other issues. This is a MAJOR national security problem that needs to be at the top of federal government's priority list. What good is securing our borders if our food supply is compromised and millions of people get sick?

Look at what's happened already.

Thousands of brands of pet foods were contaminated by something in Chinese wheat gluten. As a result, thousands of cats and hundreds of dogs got sick and DIED. Now discount store toothpaste has been contaminated by diethyl glycol (DEG), which is a poison that can cause kidney failure in humans if ingested. The discount store toothpaste was also produced in China.

It's apparent that we should be manufacturing these kinds of products here in the U.S., where our labs have quick and unfettered access to production facilities should a problem arise. China's been stalling on access to it's production facilities for weeks. Our own food production system is not perfect either, but at least our government and companies recall their products if there's a problem. All China's government did was deny the problems, or told the U.S. government that it was overreacting. Hooey!

Control of our food supply should not be internationalized for cost-cutting reasons. Corporations should keep their production facilities here, and not transfer them to China or India--for any reason.

There's a reason that certain pesticides were banned in the U.S.

It's because they were harmful to humans, but nations like China still continue to use them. I think these corporations should get their supplies from U.S. farmers and keep their business here. The food supply will be much safer, and we'll have answers much quicker should a malfunction occur during the manufacture of these products.

Dog Food Recall Goes International: 5,000+ Brands of Pet Food Now Affected

The pet food recall nightmare is continuing to unfold, and it has gotten worse and worse.

A careful review of all the current brands under recall at the FDA web site shows that over 5,000 individual brands of pet food have been recalled.

Now word is getting out that other countries have the same problem that we do: contaminated wheat gluten was exported overseas; it may have been fed to other animals, such as pigs, cows and other farm animals, which made it possible for contagions to enter into the human food chain as well.

The Chinese clearly aren't up to manufacturing food products for export; our FDA also isn't up to intercepting inbound poisons that made their way into the food chain from countries like China.

I think this shows that while we should be concerned about avian flu, we should be more worried about contaminated food, which has the ability to knock down many more people than bird flu would/does...and much faster too.

This definitely needs more attention from the government.

39,000 Pets Get Sick or Die From Food Contamination

It's much worse than many thought.

According to a major chain of veterinary clinics, some 39,000 dogs and cats have gotten sick or died from eating recalled pet foods across the nation.

And every day, it seems like there are updates on the FDA and Menu Foods web sites announcing more and more recalls.

The latest expansion of the recall was announced just before Easter; contaminated wheat gluten is suspected of being the culprit. It's hard to believe that this recall has affected over a hundred brands of pet food; that it's taken this long for these companies to react to a critical situation isn't helping at all.

This has been going on for over a friggin' month now. And there are STILL no answers. China announced that it was looking into the contamination on it's end, but the damage is already done, leaving families heartbroken.

Too little, too late.