Saturday, May 05, 2007
Artificial eggs (and other bad food news from China)
Man-made eggs. This is not the ‘Dried Egg’ of British wartime meals horror stories – realistic looking eggs are made industrially in china without benefit of chickens bottoms. Instructions on how to make them here, in a report of the Internet Journal of Toxicology.
In the news because of the great pet foods scandal in the USA involving products from China.
Apparently pet-food manufacturers in the USA have been buying raw materials from China that contains wheat gluten contaminated with melamine. Melamine is used in the manufacture of plastics, cleaning agents, glues and fertilisers. Hundreds of cats and dogs have been dying of renal failure as a result. There have been big product recalls for pet foods in the USA, and for the first time ( early May 2007) this extends to US-made products for the European pet market.
Is this something we should know about in Britain?
Are such contamiants also in products for the human food chain?
The bottom line issues of course are public health (not least in China, but also worldwide) and the implications for international trade. Because of the trade politics implications (the call for protectionism against China is growing in the USA) we should perhaps double-check the sources of such stories. It would be helpful if our parliamentarians could get some official statements on what the EU and UK are doing about such alleged contaminations, and getting action as necessary.
In the news because of the great pet foods scandal in the USA involving products from China.
Apparently pet-food manufacturers in the USA have been buying raw materials from China that contains wheat gluten contaminated with melamine. Melamine is used in the manufacture of plastics, cleaning agents, glues and fertilisers. Hundreds of cats and dogs have been dying of renal failure as a result. There have been big product recalls for pet foods in the USA, and for the first time ( early May 2007) this extends to US-made products for the European pet market.
Is this something we should know about in Britain?
Are such contamiants also in products for the human food chain?
The bottom line issues of course are public health (not least in China, but also worldwide) and the implications for international trade. Because of the trade politics implications (the call for protectionism against China is growing in the USA) we should perhaps double-check the sources of such stories. It would be helpful if our parliamentarians could get some official statements on what the EU and UK are doing about such alleged contaminations, and getting action as necessary.
Labels: China, food contamination
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