Official Chinese Newsmedia And Wheat Gluten Exporter Ignore Or Deny Contaminated Products Concern As FDA Bans Imports

While the U.S. FDA moves to ban imports of the contaminated wheat gluten products from China, the official Chinese news agency ignores the story, and the main wheat gluten exporter in China discounts the numerous accounts of melamine contamination which has been proven by chemical testing in both the U.S. and Canada as mere "rumors". Such is the problem of dealing with a Communist nation in which the government defends the reputation of any industry in their nation as a matter of national pride, and individual businesses fail to take proper responsibility for producing safe products.

Certainly trade is important with China to help forge positive relations with the most populated nation of the world, but the complete failure and noncooperation of both the Chinese government and the wheat gluten exporter responsible as the source of this toxic contamination scare is appalling.

With little accountability by either the Chinese government or by the exporter business directly involved in the illness and deaths of so many pets in North America, serious safety concerns for imports of food products meant for human consumption are also heightened. For the sake of mere profits, pet lives were put at risk this time, and human lives could be next unless the Chinese government establishes more product testing and more responsibility to inspect food exports from China. There have already been problems with food products from Mexico being banned in California for example because of a high lead content in the water the candy was produced from. But whether other states have withdrawn the same hazardous products is not really known, and unless the federal FDA acts, could still be for sale in the other 49 states unless they test import products with a state health agency.

With the mushrooming growth of outsourcing to boost profits by American and Canadian businesses, serious illness and deaths of humans will be the next major crisis at some point unless the U.S. FDA demands far better accountability by foreign suppliers, especially from China and Mexico.