Who said that food safety problems were unique to China?

Recent buzz around the Chinese tainted milk suggests that you can eat safely as long as your food was not produced in China.
But let's be realistic and see that China is under the spotlight because the country provides most of the world's goods nowadays (although less than 1% is food), and because it's always more frightening and impressing when China is concerned.
Indeed, not less scary food-related accidents happened and keep happening in Europe or America too. Take last year for instance: some Canadian meat caused the death of 15 people just a few days before the tainted milk scandal due to a Listeria bacteria outbreak, Italian mozzarella cheese was recalled for containing potentially cancer-causing dioxins, and American chocolate was found to contain Quinoline Yellow, a food colorant banned in some countries as it may cause dermatitis, provoke hyperactivity and reduce intelligence at children.
A media coverage trend quite convenient for Western countries, who can thank China for letting them keep "their" scandals discrete...

Comments

[pass my drug test]

Thanks For Such A Nice Post

[Japanese Porn Mosaics]

emm. funny.

[Ajlouny]

Shouldn't there be the same protocol with imported foods, such as the milk that comes from china, as with the US produced foods and beverages. Boycotting China's production doesn't protect us.

[Thierry D.]

Cher Monsieur Breteau,
Je pense que vous faites erreur dans votre allusion à "letting them keep « their » scandals discrete..."

A mon sens, pour les autres pays concernés par des scandales similaires, les couvertures médiatiques sont telles et tellement rapides que l’on n'y prête plus vraiment l'attention particulière, comme celle apportée a la Chine, du fait des déclarations toujours très tardives, retentissantes, et de leurs probables étendues (corruption probante) souvent dissimulés...!
De par les renseignements que beaucoup connaissent, le scandale du lait a été la parfaite révélation d'une histoire étouffée (par de hauts responsables..?) durant 14 mois au moins..!
Et encore une fois, la démonstration de l’édification de la corruption a tous les échelons. Ce qui reste le fondement du business chinois en Chine...

[Don Tai]

There will always be a possibility of any food getting either bacterial or viral outbreak. Some bacteria are beneficial and some are harmful. Bacteria and viruses are natural and cannot be completely controlled. A completely separate issue is the intentional additional of harmful ingredients to food.

The issue can broken down into detection and remedial action. In the listeria outbreak at Maple Leaf Foods in Canada, once detected, the plant was immediately shut down and remedial action, such as disinfecting the factory and product recalls began. Product had already been shipped and consumed before the problem was detected. The company used proper procedures and immediately acted.

China's melamine-laced milk problems persisted for at least 4 months, with the leadership of Sanlu gambling with the health of China's children. It is difficult to say if any fewer kids would have died, but certainly less exposure to this bad milk would have been better. Sanlu's actions were motivated more by greed than the well being of their customers. Their delays were immoral and reprehensible. Management has been found guilty and sentenced.

China's tainted milk scandal reached worldwide headlines because these companies showed a total lack of concern for their customers, who unfortunately were innocent children. The fact that this occurred in China was irrelevant.

The number of people who die from a food incident does not indicate the severity of malpractice of the company. It is more an indication of the lethality of the bacteria or virus, which is outside any company's control.