vader1

China has closed 180 food factories after inspectors found industrial chemicals being used in products from candy to seafood, state media said Wednesday.

The closures came amid a nationwide crackdown on shoddy and dangerous products launched in December that also uncovered use of recycled or expired food, the China Daily said.

Formaldehyde, illegal dyes, and industrial wax were found being used to make candy, pickles, crackers and seafood, it said, citing Han Yi, an official with the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, which is responsible for food safety.

"These are not isolated cases," Han, director of the administration's quality control and inspection department, was quoted as saying.

Han's admission was significant because the administration has said in the past that safety violations were the work of a few rogue operators, a claim which is likely part of a strategy to protect China's billions of dollars (euros) of food exports.International concerns over China's food safety problems ballooned this year after high levels of toxins and industrial chemicals were found in exported products.

Chinese-made toothpaste has been rejected by several countries in North and South America and Asia, while Chinese wheat gluten tainted with the chemical melamine was blamed for dog and cat deaths in North America. Other products turned away by U.S. inspectors include toxic monkfish, frozen eel and juice made with unsafe color additives.

Authorities in China have pushed for more stringent controls and increased publicity of their efforts to control the problem.

Han said most of the offending manufacturers were small, unlicensed food plants with fewer than 10 employees, and all had been shut down. China Daily said 75 percent of China's estimated 1 million food processing plants are small and privately owned.

According to Han, the ongoing inspections are focusing on commonly consumed food such as meat, milk, beverages, soy sauce and cooking oil. Rural areas and the suburbs -- where standards are likely less strict -- are still considered key areas for inspectors, he said.

Meanwhile, another regulating agency, China's State Administration for Industry and Commerce, said it closed 152,000 unlicensed food manufacturers and retailers last year for making fake and low-quality products.

It also banned 15,000 tons of "unqualified food" from entering the market because it failed to meet national standards.

The report, posted on the administration's Web site Tuesday, gave no other details and telephone calls to the administration were not answered.




Editorial comment: This is stricktly a PR move because the reputation has gotten so bad. If China started to lose export business, they will turn a blind eye real fast. Its happened MANY times. If they had any real concern it would not have been this bad in the first place. The first mission of the Chinese government is economic growth, all other things are secondary. Thats great if you are a citizen of China, but not so great if you are a consumer of their exports.

Fronks2k

I didn't say to avoid ALL Made in China products. When did a freaking forum title have to always be a brief synopsis of what is to follow? What I said was in the BODY OF THE TEXT, which was to bring awareness to the dangers of a specific tire.

Stop extrapolating and inferring statements that I never stated.

GT_2003

let's be fair: the thread title is "ANOTHER reason to avoid "Made in China" products," and the body of the post included a reason to avoid products made in China. Seems like an accurate title to me

If the title of the thread was simply "Avoid "Made in China" products," this dispute would be relevant, but it wasn't, so it's not A person might have ten reasons to avoid products from China, but 19 reasons to buy those products, and so decide as they see fit. In no way did I, or probably any rational person, read the original post as a diatribe against China. Any attempt to make it out as such is simply people being entirely too sensitive.

Many people here routinely state their reasons to avoid products made in the USA. I don't think those people hate the US in general or have anything but a personal preference/prejudice. Nothing wrong with that. In fact, quite often the reasons people give for avoiding US products are based on less actual data and logic than the OP's post. Since it is acceptable to freely state biases against the US around here, it should be equally acceptable to state biases against the products of ANY country.

Fronks2k

U gotz mah back, thanks yo .

kumainu

There are generally 3 categories of made-in-China products exported to the U.S.:

1) the cheap products, or knockoffs, made from cheap materials and careless labor or assembly, whose sole purpose is profit and not the consumer's satisfaction;

2) the mediocre products, made from decent materials and labor and gone through some quality tests;

3) the quality products, made from good materials with meticulous labor and gone through a set of stringent quality tests, usually affiliated with quality companies/factories.

Don't be a moron and generalize that all made-in-China products are cheap knockoffs, because it ain't true. That goes for anyone.

Sometimes, corruption and extortion also play a part of irresponsibility in quality testing. Remember the recent mishap of made-in-China pet food? It turned out to be a scandal involving the head of the quality testing department. He was taking bribes from companies to overlook some unsafe ingredients in products exported to the U.S. The Chinese government EXECUTED him!

565565

Exactly. People get what they pay for. China makes a ton of stuff and it's only natural to make both alot of the good and the bad. For example my Lenovo (Chinese)made IBM Thinkpad T40 laptop has served me so well for 4 years now. It's far better than the Japanese Sony Vaio crap I bought before or the American Dell crap that stopped working after the warrantee ran out. The T40 was also quite a bit more expensive than it's rivals too, so you get what you pay for.

It's silly to avoid products from a certain country because you think they are cheap crap. It's far easier to simply avoid cheap crap, regardless of their country of origin. If you don't want cheap crap, don't go out and buy the cheapest tires you can find, it doesn't matter if it's from China or Japan or USA or Mexico.

Traveler

USA Today was also covering the Tire recall today. (Not really a recall yet. FTS hasn't agreed to a recall because they claim they can't afford it.) Their story includes a quote from China's Ministry Of Communications: