Ingredient Matters

2012-02-09T10:20:00.001-08:00

This is a quick post to alert parents/schools about orange juice we buy in the stores. Coca Cola and Pepsi Cola had found Carbendazim (an illegal fungicide) in oranges (and juice) imported from Brazil. According associated press, some of them have gone to Canada as well.

As this point of time, I hope most of them are removed from the stores. Since the importers have 90 days to remove them, some may show up or be available for the public to purchase. The best bet is to always check the labels and read where the oranges are from.

Carbendazin is illegal to use in the U.S., but not in Brazil, the biggest orange producer.

Did you buy Halloween candies with Trans Fat?

2011-10-31T11:41:00.000-07:00

During my recent trips to stores buying some candies for Halloween, I noticed two problems with some candies and chocolates.
1. There are some candies containing trans-fat, a.k.a., partially hydrogenated oil. Included is a link detailing why trans-fat is bad for human bodies.
http://www.treelight.com/health/nutrition/PartiallyHydrogenatedOils.html
2. There are quite a lot of candies that are from China. With the rotten food safety record in China, I don’t understand why people would pay money for Chinese candies, needless eating them. It’s likely many shoppers don’t read where the candies are from. Just to keep you update on the rationales of why it’s dangerous to eat food from China, please read the following link for the latest news on Chinese food.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/20/gutter-oil-china-sounds-a_n_652398.html

After kids coming back from Trick’r Treat, it would help to go through the candies and chocolates, and read the ingredients, not just the nutrition information. FCC rules allow food manufacturers to label 0% trans-fat in the Nutrition Information section if the trans-fat is less than 0.49%. Therefore the information in Ingredient section is more accurate. Some manufacturers do not print any ingredients on packets of candies and chocolates. We can go to the website or call to find out the ingredients.

Have a safe and fun Halloween!

More tainted food from China

2011-09-26T17:17:00.000-07:00

Here on the top of right column is a report about more tainted food from China. This time is tainted meat by purpose, not by accident.

a new chemical, phenylethanolamine A, has been added in some Chinese pig feed to boost up the look of the meat (so more money can be made). Such chemical can harm humans severely once the tainted meat is consumed.

Without looking into the psychology of adding such chemical to food for humans, we simply want to be informed if similar ingredients are in our food, especially in the packaged food. But where is the mechanism in the food manufacturing industry for us to learn where the ingredients are shipped from?

There is no law requiring it, so the food manufacturers would not do it.

I would love to hear from some of you for your suggestions.

Caveat Emptor

2011-09-09T17:22:00.000-07:00

Caveat emptor - let the buyer beware.

Knowing where the ingredients of your food are from is something the consumers should begin to demand, either by influencing the food manufacturers or by law.

This basic right has been with human society since (if not before) the Roman time. The mass production of modern food has only one goal: to pursue the lowest possible price. But in the process, food producers and manufacturers have also made many short cuts and short changes and, in the end, compromise the purpose of having food, i.e., food safety.

Whole Foods’ Organic food is from China

2010-04-12T16:58:00.000-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQ31Ljd9T_Y&feature=player_embedded#

Thanks to ABC I-Team’s spotlight on the so-called organic food in Whole Foods, people hopefully would start reading the labels and learn where the food is from. While it is easier for us to read the labels on the packaged food, it may not be as easy to know or find where some of fruits and vegetables are from.
We have been to Gilroy, CA, the Capital of Garlic. To our dismay, we saw many stalls claiming selling local produces are marketing Chinese garlic. We asked the store why a Gilroy local market/shop would market garlic from China. Surprised by our enquiry, the clerk answered: because customers buy them. We stopped buying the Garlic Ice Cream there. There is no way to know for sure they did not use the Chinese garlic for the ice cream.

At least, some stores like Whole Foods put on their labels showing where the ingredients are from. How about (if) the Vitamin companies buy bulk ingredients from China and repackage them in smaller packs, then mark them “Made in the US”. Technically it’s made in the U.S., but with Chinese ingredients. The problem for consumers is that, THEY ARE NOT REQUIRED BY LAW TO LABEL THAT.

This is where the trouble of our food chains starts.
(More on this subject will be followed.)

Do we know the food we buy?

2009-09-22T15:22:00.000-07:00

In a cheese making class, I was told that in France the creameries would not buy your milk if they don't know you. Um...,this is one interesting French food philosophy.

Here in the U.S., there is no way we would know the people who supply our food. Bluntly put, we don't even know the food we buy. Or do we?

Something to ponder...

Keep our family and friends safe from Chinese chicken

2009-09-15T13:24:00.000-07:00

Dear Friend,

I just signed a petition asking Congress to keep the ban on imported chicken from China. In addition to ongoing problems with China's food safety standards and inspection system, U.S. inspectors have found filthy and unsanitary conditions in Chinese poultry processing facilities. Can you sign the petition to keep the ban on Chinese chicken?

Take action by going to:
http://action.foodandwaterwatch.org/t/741/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=1373

Thanks,

Sofia V.

Tell Obama to say NO to Chinese chicken

2009-06-02T11:37:00.000-07:00

June 2, 2009

I have recently learned that the ban of Chinese chicken may soon to be removed by the Obama administration. I recommend people to take action to express our concerns.

This action is introduced by Food and Water Watch; here is the website of the food section:
http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/food

Need transparency for food/drug safety

2009-02-03T10:37:00.000-08:00

February 3, 2009
In the past several weeks, we have read a lot of news and development on Salmonella from tainted peanut butter (see the articles on the right side of this blog). Even President Obama said that “we (the administration) are going to be doing a complete review of FDA operations”.

It is clear that federal agencies, such as FDA, are often at the mercy of available federal funding and deregulation of each administration. If the FDA were consumers’ first line of defense (on food and drug safety), then what’s our second line of defense when federal funding is insufficient and/or the administration thought complete deregulation was better (like last eight years)?

The sourcing and outsourcing network among the food industry works very efficient. Salmonella virus from the tainted peanut butter in a Georgia processing plant traveled to uninformed consumers so fast that even the FDA could not act quickly enough to prevent some sickness and deaths. If the food/drug safety law requires certain transparency on the sourcing and outsourcing of food/drug industries, say through an updated website publication, then concerned consumers for their purchases would have a source of information to base on.

Of course, increasing the funds and manpower for FDA is important and welcomed because this is our first line of defense. Furthermore, we in this blog would like to see a law requiring food and drug companies to disclose the source of their ingredients (at least when inquired). A law like COOL (Country of Origin on meats and seafood) would be a great start. From there, consumers’ second line of defense on food/drug safety can begin to take shape.

In this downturn economy, such law on processed food and drugs will not increase the government’s fiscal budgets. And with more transparency to our food and drugs, it would in the long run help improving our general health and reducing the burden of our health care system.

Let's hope for a better 2009 on food safety...

2009-01-12T11:41:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year!

The economic situation has worsened and people’s available spending is getting less. I first thought, maybe this recession could make consumers spend less by reducing purchase of non-essential items. But, Claire’s taking of the current situation was the opposite. She thought people would buy the same amount of stuff, but much cheaper stuff and care even less of product safety.

Long after the stampedes to Wal-Mart, I slowly came to the sad reality that the majority of people seemed oblivious to the ingredients of food. I believe that is why most of the food manufacturers do not check the sources of their product ingredients.

When we look at the sales ranking among the retailers in the last quarter of 2008, the top one is still Wal-Mart which had in their bottled water, see the news link on the right, the highest concentration of chlorine byproducts, known as trihalomethanes.

As we start the new year, we would like to remind consumers to make wise choice on their purchase. Because, in many ways, consumers’ purchase money could be our last voting power over corporations.

It's up to the consumers after disclosures...

2008-12-16T05:16:00.000-08:00

I had an interesting conversation with a friend who said, what if some people still choose to purchase and eat the food that was reported to have tainted ingredient? I told her, not to worry for those people. As long as the information is available to us, what the consumers will do with the information is up to the individuals. We can not tell people what to do with their lives.

In real estate transactions in California, the law requires the sellers to fill out a two to three pages of disclosure form about the houses. What the buyers want to do with the information is up to the buyers. Same defects of the house may bother one buyer, while others would not mind at all.

How about our food and drugs? These are about our long term health and well-being, why can we not demand at least same kind of disclosures?

It is important to learn the truth, especially when it comes to what we feed our family.

Ingredient Matters: Securing our food sources

2008-12-03T15:55:00.000-08:00

Ingredient Matters: Securing our food sources

Securing our food sources

2008-12-03T15:24:00.001-08:00

There are two articles in the Insight of SF Chronicle on November 30, 2008 that caught my eyes: 1) Cheap Food Doesn’t Factor in Health Risk by Aleda Roth and 2) Better Oversight of Food Imports Needed by Mark Schlosberg and Elanor Starmer. The links to their articles are on the right side of this blog.

Dr. Aleda Roth is an international recognized scholar in global strategic sourcing and operational risk and a member of the Supply Chain Thought Leader Roundtable. In her article, we could get a glimpse of the dark secrecy of globalization by the food conglomerates in the Western food today. Even with the COOL (Country of Origin Labeling in meat and seafood effective in September), labeling is not required with any processing. Distributors don’t want us to know where they got our food!!!

In addition to recommending the establishment of cabinet-level agency for food safety (by the president-elect Obama), Dr. Roth suggests that food companies should make their ingredient sourcing information available when asked. I welcome this approach, but how would the food companies be willing to do so? Should there be a law requiring them to do so when asked?

When FDA has not enough funds and manpower to do inspections on the imported food, the consumers should have a second line of defense by gaining easy access to the information. We do not have such mechanism in our food supply system. We should at least demand that.

The second article about food security is by Mark Schlosberg and Elanor Starmer, the California director and a research analyst with Food and Water Watch, illustrates further the global food supply chain’s operations. The important statistics are here and remember that these numbers are growing with more people buying cheap food: “More than 4 billion pounds of food and food ingredients enter the U.S. every year. An unknown amount of additional food is imported from other countries that use Chinese ingredients but do not disclose them.” It goes further to talk about FDA’s inability to stand up (for the American consumers) to corrupt trading partners by accepting a limited level of Melamine (which should be zero tolerance).

Again, Schlosberg and Starmer stress the need of strong governmental oversight on food safety and requiring food companies to label country of origin on processed food and food ingredients.

I would like to echo the authors’ concerns and urge consumers’ action to ask for laws and regulations for country of origin labeling on processed food and food ingredients. Though such a law may be rudimentary and is not enough to close the loopholes of unsafe ingredients entering the U.S. by route of third countries. However, that would be a starter of protecting our food sources. We need to start somewhere.

By Sofia V.

It's okay to have a little of Melamin in baby's milk?

2008-11-28T23:54:00.000-08:00

I found it hard to believe that FDA announced that it's safe for baby to have a little of Melamine in their milk. Melamine is for industrial and pesticide use, and it's okay for baby now.

I am sure glad I don't have baby drinking formula. But if you do, I hope you would not be feeding your baby milk suspected of containing Melamine.

I hope the new Obama administration will start looking into FDA and its personnel for the mentality that allows Melamine into baby's milk.

Country of Origin labeling

2008-11-19T15:50:00.000-08:00

When grocery shopping the other day in an Asian market in Mountain View, I noticed this new market puts Country of Origin labels on most (if not all) of the fruits, vegetables and seafood. It was quite impressive.

Of course, when I got to the packaged processed food section, there was not such delight of information for consumers.

Why some small grocery stores can easily do Country of Origin labels while food manufactures can not or are unwilling to do so for the ingredients?

Abominably, contaminated blood thinner ingredients re-entered the US

2008-11-11T11:39:00.001-08:00

On November 8^th, 2008, I had read in a non-English newspaper about the re-entry of contaminated Heparin from China . Searching for two days, finally I found the news in English language. The stories of Chinese made ingredients in the American and Western drugs (Heparin – blood thinner) are on the right side of this blog. I am adding the most updated news on the top of the right side.

The most amazing thing is companies like Celsus Laboratories continued purchasing Chinese ingredients for distribution in the U. S. and internationally, after almost 250 deaths and hundreds of severed allergies that were blamed on the tainted blood thinner from China. The following is quoted from the news:

“FDA testing in January (2008) found that large amounts of Chinese raw heparin imported into the United Sates were contaminated with the chemical oversulfated chondroitin sulfate. The FDA believes the substance was added to allow the product to pass tests that measure heparin levels.

A major heparin recall ensued. Almost 250 deaths and hundreds of severe allergic reactions were blamed on tainted batches of the blood thinner, which is frequently given to patients having heart surgery and kidney dialysis.”

It is clear that ‘greed’ motivated the Chinese to add Melamine to food and drug ingredients; and abominably, it is also ‘greed’ that motivated some American companies, such as Celsus Laboratories, to continue buying and distributing ingredients from the same country where the tainted Heparin came from.

Under such arrangement of international trades, manipulated by greedy business establishments, what should consumers do? In addition to gaining as much information as possible, we should also demand country origin labeling on all packaged food and medication.

Your comments and recommendations are more than welcome.

American consumers are vulnerable to contaminated products

2008-11-08T21:20:00.001-08:00

Somehow I did not catch this report immediately after its publication. In the news links on the right side of this blog, there’s a report showing how vulnerable the American consumers are to the contaminated products. It’s shocking to know that FDA inspects less than one percent of imports a year. Less than one percent...

Former Director of Imports for FDA (1999-2005), Carl Nielsen, said "... There's so little known from the foreign markets." I totally agree. Especially food and/ingredients that are from countries that have little or no free media reporting. The melamine contaminated milk products from China is a very clear example. My understanding was that, in China there were complaints of melamine contamination in the Chinese milk since last December. But, with the Chinese style of media, no news outlets knew about, or reported it until huge numbers of Chinese kids got sick and were sent to hospitals.

Without sufficient FDA inspections, the American consumers are eating the food coming from the same "black box food supplies" as that of the third world countries.

Before FDA got enough funding and manpower to do sufficient inspection on the imports, we would like at least to see some transparency by food makers - labeling country origin for the ingredients.

Article by professor Marion Nestley (please see story link on the right)

2008-11-05T15:16:00.000-08:00

In this article, Professor Marion Nestle, a nationally recognized nutrition expert, answered many questions about the Chinese melamine contaminated ingredients. She explained briefly the history of Melamine as ideal adulterant and talked about actions many countries should take. For the U.S., the Food and Drug Administration(FDA) should be bearing a lot of responsibilities to do the job.

Regarding creating a new food safety agency, I am wondering about the financial feasibility in today's downturn economy. Wouldn't it be easier to simply increase FDA's budget and manpower?

I do agree with her that for now, we may want to say no to imported ingredients and foods, and that knowing where foods and ingredients come from is important for our purchase decisions in the store and also for our peace of mind.

Etiquette aspect of receiving sweets

2008-11-01T10:48:00.000-07:00

Kids often receive sweet treats. The old tradition is saying thank you and eating them. In this era of unknown ingredients in packaged food, parents are facing dilemma of examining the sweets or even questioning the givers the source of sweets, and traditional etiquette.

I hope parents, as guardians of our kids, stand up more for the safety of our children. It's more important to set the priority right. Of course, we want to explain to the generous givers our concerns of unknown ingredients in our packaged food.

What do parents do for sweets this Halloween?

2008-10-24T22:35:00.001-07:00

More candies and cookies are being recalled. I ask myself and my husband, what arewe going to do with candies this Halloween? We are thinking of giving out pen, pencils and erasers, maybe.

However, my utmost concern is: what else has not been disclosed to us?

In Trader Joe's today, I found a new label on my favorite seafood package showing the scallops are from Thailand and shrimps from China. I was thankful for such disclosure. Surveying many packaged food, I am still disappointed at no such label of country origins on them.

I am wondering whether some food manufacturers would answer to consumers' request of asking for where the country origin of the food ingredients. If anyone is interested in doing such survey, please email me.

It's not just food ingredients, how about medication?

2008-10-22T13:28:00.000-07:00

While we want to know the from-where information of our food ingredients, the tragedy of tainted blood thinner Heparin killing and sickening people in U. S. and the rest of the world also makes us desire to know how best we can protect our loved ones.

In the contaminated blood thinner Heparin cases, people paid for products that are supposed to help them. They did not, instead, they hurt people. We are living in a society taking food safety very seriously. But to cut the cost, the manufacturers and suppliers import ingredients from countries that have low or no food safety concerns for their own people. We are essentially living, to some extent, in a third-world society.

I know some of us don’t care, but many do care. Most people would not feed their loved ones something that can cause cancer or do harms.

So how do we protect us? Don’t we wish there is information out there that can help us? Before the lawmakers realize that there should be certain law to prote

Law or consumer pressure?

2008-10-14T23:22:00.000-07:00

I was told that the bar code of food package would tell you where the food is from. Do you know how true it is? When I learned that you can import bulk ingredients from any country, assemble them here and label them 'Made in

U.S.

", I started this suspicious feeling in my guts. If the ingredients from country C can go to country N and end up killing cats and dogs in country U, the international trade business has become a black box. Shall we wait for the government to have a law to require country of origin labeling on food? Shall we push food makers to do such disclosure? But, what's their incentive for doing so?

We do need to have laws to require certain transparency in our food chain. But how long would it take? Let check into the process of COOL.

Ingredient Matters

2008-10-13T11:08:00.000-07:00

I subscribe to FDA's food alert. Then, I think it usually takes some deaths or sickness before such news was released. I am also wondering how much our government inspect food imported into this country. Therefore, I would like to share and learn from each other the information of food manufacturers we frequently buy. Where do their ingredients come from? Let us start the search and investigation.

Does any one know where the ingredients of Oreo cookies come from?
How about M & M?
How about Dreyer's Ice Cream?