Report: Americans completely reliant on China for antibiotics

“The crucial ingredients for nearly all antibiotics, steroids and many other lifesaving drugs are now made exclusively in China,” The New York Times reported in the 32nd paragraph of a Friday article entitled “Medicines made in India set off safety worries.”

For the first time, the USDA has agreed to allow chicken that has been raised and slaughtered in the U.S. to be shipped to China to be processed then shipped back for us to eat.

China’s food safety record

“This is a country that has a very poor safety record,” said Siegel.

China has had some big food safety issues. In 2008, six children died and 300,000 others were sickened by infant formula laced with melamine. (Melamine is a chemical – a by-product of coal that is high in nitrogen. It can raise the protein level in foods and thus garner more money at market. For consumers, it means you get an inferior food laced with a deadly chemical.)

A year earlier, the FDA recalled thousands of pounds of pet food processed in China after 17,000 pets became sick and 4,000 died. The FDA later charged the Chinese company with substituting the deadly chemical melamine for wheat gluten.

“A million dollars worth of lamb was sold to Chinese consumers that turned out to be the meat from rats and foxes,” said Siegel. “This is a system that’s so weak, it can’t even catch these egregious problems, and so that’s why we’re concerned about having our chicken processed there.” 

I wonder if people will keep “lovin'” McNuggets ?

Filed under: General Problems