Food Safety in China; A diagnosis

choi

Thomas N Thompson, Glowing Pork, Exploding Watermelons; Why China can't keep its food safe. Foreign Affairs, Mar 14, 2012 (blog).
http://www.foreignaffairs.com/ar ... ploding-watermelons

Quote:

"But Chinese bureaucrats are not solely to blame; many of the country's food safety problems can be traced back to the farm. Farmers rely on chemicals to increase yields and ward off insects.

"The growing distance from the farm to the dinner table that has come with China's rapid urbanization also presents problems. Because the country lacks an integrated chain of refrigerated trucks, warehouses, and retail space, contamination has been on the rise. It does not help that China's food supply system is highly fragmented. The country has approximately 500,000 registered food production companies, of which 80 percent are small food workshops with fewer than ten employees. Then there are the 200 million farmers who ship directly to the market with little documentation. This is why it is so hard to trace the source of contaminated milk, for example; dairies get their raw milk from thousands of milk collection stations, which, in turn, source directly from farmers, each of whom on average owns fewer than three cows.

"It would be tempting for those not living in China to think that the country's food scandals do not affect them. * * * When Americans drink apple juice or eat tilapia, cod, or canned peaches, mushrooms, spinach, garlic, there is a good chance they are eating a Chinese product. And that food probably has not been tested: Only 1.5 percent of Chinese food imports, according to the US Food and Drug Administration, are inspected.

My comment: There is no need to read the rest.