If you dined on tilapia recently, chances are it came from China. And that artificial vanilla you just used to make cookies? It, too, may have made the same long journey to your kitchen in the United States.
A growing amount of food commonly consumed by Americans - ranging from canned tuna and mandarin oranges to fresh mushrooms and apple juice - is now being imported from China. By the end of last year, the United States imported 4.1 billion pounds of food products from China, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
American imports of Chinese food products gained more attention on Wednesday when Smithfield Foods, one of the biggest and oldest pork producers in the United States, agreed to sell itself to Shuanghui International, one of China’s largest meat processors.
The $4.7 billion deal amounts to the largest takeover to date of an American company by a Chinese one. Although Smithfield emphasized that the deal was intended to deliver more pork to China, not the reverse, it nonetheless prompted concern about China’s expanding role in the American food supply and the implications that might have for food safety in the United States.
“We are importing more and more food from China at the same time we are hearing more and more about food scandals involving Chinese companies,” said Patty Lovera, assistant director of Food and Water Watch, who testified in Congress at a hearing on Chinese food imports. Food-safety problems, such as melamine deliberately put into pet foods and baby formula, as well as unsafe levels of cadmium in rice, have plagued China. The latest episode concerned fox, rat and mink meat that was doctored with gelatin, pigment and nitrates and sold as mutton.
“We should definitely give the Chinese an award for creativity in adulterating foods,” said Jeff Nelken, a food-safety expert. “They are a great resource for counterfeited foods, like honey products that don’t seem to have any pollen in them.”
A 2009 study by the Agriculture Department concluded that while Chinese officials were working to improve food safety and the regulation of food production - requiring the small number of food exporters there to gain certification - imports from China were still problematic. “Monitoring the wide range of products and hazards that can arise at various points in the export chain is a challenge for Chinese and U.S. officials,” the report stated.
The United States government has continued to have concerns about Chines e food exports, with a congressional hearing in May billed as “The Threat of China’s Unsafe Consumables” as the latest example.
U.S. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., who heads the House Subcommittee on Europe, Eurasia and Emerging Threats, said in opening the hearing that “inspecting and testing Chinese goods is beyond the ability of governments, considering the magnitude of that challenge.”
Imported foods sold in groceries and other food stores must be labeled with their country of origin, but a substantial part of imports end up in restaurant and food-service meals, where consumers have no idea of their source.
Additionally, once imported foods are processed in any way, such labeling is no longer required under government regulations.
Thus, frozen imported peas and carrots would require a label if packaged separately, but mixed together and sold in a single package, they do not need labeling, Lovera said. Fish filets must carry labeling, but imported fish sticks or crab patties do not.
Many of the scandals over Chinese foodstuffs imported to the United States have concerned products that fall under the jurisdiction of the Food and Drug Administration, which is responsible for monitoring seafood, fruits and vegetables coming into the country.
China is also a big source of ingredients used in food, such as xylitol, a candy sweetener, artificial vanilla, soy sauce and folic acid.
China is not, however, allowed to export fresh pork or beef to the United States because it still has outbreaks of hoof-and-mouth disease.
Business, Pages 73 on 06/09/2013