'EAT ZINC!' TUESDAY: Chinese manufacturer insists poison a healthful and high quality product
"Two brands of Chinese-made toothpastes were last week pulled from shelves in Panama after authorities discovered they contained potentially-fatal diethylene glycol," reads an article from el Reg, today.
The Chinese spike diethylene glycol -- or DEG -- into medicines and other consumables as a cheap alternative to using the correct ingredient, glycerin. It is another in a line of Chinese poison additives, developed in a kind of backroom chemistry of dirty tricks where adulterating masking compounds totally unfit for human or animal consumption are used to increase profits.
DEG is convenient to use because in liquid analyses it cannot be distinguished from glycerin using infrared spectroscopy. In this, it fulfills a function like melamine. Melamine cannot be distinguished from protein in food samples in simple assays aimed at determining nitrogen content.
"In this case, however, the diethylene glycol was apparently clearly labelled on the 'Excel' and 'Mr Cool' toothpastes, supplied by the Hengxiang-based Danyang Chengshi Household Chemical Co.," continues the Reg. "After a sharp-eyed customer spotted the offending ingredient, University of Panama experts confirmed it comprised around 2.5 per cent of the toothpastes - not considered enough to pose a health risk, but sufficient to provoke the powers that be to warn consumers off the products."
"Danyang Chengshi Household Chemical Co's general manager Chen Yaozu confirmed ... that his firm had exported toothpaste containing diethylene glycol to Panama, but said the chemical was 'permitted under Chinese rules and was safe in small amounts.'. He added: 'I can say I am very confident about our product's quality.'"
It's a self-serving comment, equivalent to "This is bad for you but it won't kill you because the concentration is low. That is, until we get even more greedy and pooch it up in the mix room. And you won't catch us until it's too late, anyway."
In related news from an Indiana newspaper, "Even though scientists have concluded that the risk to humans from the chickens fed [melamine] tainted feed is very low, [Even Bayh, Sen., (D)] told [George W. Bush] that the episode illustrates how vulnerable U.S. consumers are 'to potentially poisonous agents that may be intentionally delivered to American citizens ..."
Bayh, it is said, wants to roll up the welcome mat for Chinese food imports and additives as well as strengthen inspection processes. Neither of these is particularly achievable.
In the current system, there is no real security. American food makers have outsourced their supply chains to China. They have found that it is impossible to divest themselves from such sources because they have ceded so much to China in the name of profit and expedience.
There are alternatives.
China has achieved sufficiently bad publicity over the pet food scandal. The federal government could require all American foods and food additives with ingredients from China be brightly labelled in yellow with "Ingredients from China!" Businesses that did not comply or are found in violation could, theoretically, be forced to accept severe fines and penalties.
As it stands, there is no requirement at the moment that food manufacturers inform consumers, on the package, where the potentially dodgy materials in them originate.
Your friendly neighborhood GlobalSecurity.Org Senior Fellow knows consumers would quickly make their choices, providing great incentive to American businesses to revamp and fix the problem of outsourced supply chains.
Why?
Because people would read "Ingredients from China!" as "Contains poison!"
Sales of goods with such a label would suffer immediate negative consequences in the marketplace in competition with more expensive goods that do not have to post such a label.
It's one solution but it probably won't happen, either. American businessmen would fight it tooth and nail. They know they would have to make immediate changes, changes which would certainly impact quarterly profits, or face ruin.
Politicians are now fond of making what will surely be a transient noise about how the USDA, the FDA, and other agencies will be strengthened. They make farting sounds about keeping the food safe and have appointed a "czar" whose name no one can remember since it is assumed to be a meaningless gesture.
"The Center for Veterinary Medicine (CVM) is working with other federal agencies to help the country prepare for a biological emergency, natural disaster or terrorist attack by making sure there is a safe and adequate supply of animal drug products and a safe animal feed supply system," writes someone from the FDA on its website.
Fine words, eh?
They were written well before the tainted pet food scandal.
"Al-Qaeda has studied U.S. agriculture, which is in need of defense, FBI deputy director John Pistole told about 900 people gathered at the Westin Crown Center . . . 'I believe that the terrorist threat is changing and even adapting — but so are we,' Pistole said at a government Keep-The-Food-Safe industry seminar in 2006.
Boy, that man certainly knew what was going on now, didn't he?
Poisoned toothpaste from China at the Reg.
Evan Bayh on Chinese imports in the Ft. Wayne Journal Gazette.
'Eat Zinc!" on diethylene glycol in medicines.
Incidental agroterrorism.
"Two brands of Chinese-made toothpastes were last week pulled from shelves in Panama after authorities discovered they contained potentially-fatal diethylene glycol," reads an article from el Reg, today.
The Chinese spike diethylene glycol -- or DEG -- into medicines and other consumables as a cheap alternative to using the correct ingredient, glycerin. It is another in a line of Chinese poison additives, developed in a kind of backroom chemistry of dirty tricks where adulterating masking compounds totally unfit for human or animal consumption are used to increase profits.
DEG is convenient to use because in liquid analyses it cannot be distinguished from glycerin using infrared spectroscopy. In this, it fulfills a function like melamine. Melamine cannot be distinguished from protein in food samples in simple assays aimed at determining nitrogen content.
"In this case, however, the diethylene glycol was apparently clearly labelled on the 'Excel' and 'Mr Cool' toothpastes, supplied by the Hengxiang-based Danyang Chengshi Household Chemical Co.," continues the Reg. "After a sharp-eyed customer spotted the offending ingredient, University of Panama experts confirmed it comprised around 2.5 per cent of the toothpastes - not considered enough to pose a health risk, but sufficient to provoke the powers that be to warn consumers off the products."
"Danyang Chengshi Household Chemical Co's general manager Chen Yaozu confirmed ... that his firm had exported toothpaste containing diethylene glycol to Panama, but said the chemical was 'permitted under Chinese rules and was safe in small amounts.'. He added: 'I can say I am very confident about our product's quality.'"
It's a self-serving comment, equivalent to "This is bad for you but it won't kill you because the concentration is low. That is, until we get even more greedy and pooch it up in the mix room. And you won't catch us until it's too late, anyway."
In related news from an Indiana newspaper, "Even though scientists have concluded that the risk to humans from the chickens fed [melamine] tainted feed is very low, [Even Bayh, Sen., (D)] told [George W. Bush] that the episode illustrates how vulnerable U.S. consumers are 'to potentially poisonous agents that may be intentionally delivered to American citizens ..."
Bayh, it is said, wants to roll up the welcome mat for Chinese food imports and additives as well as strengthen inspection processes. Neither of these is particularly achievable.
In the current system, there is no real security. American food makers have outsourced their supply chains to China. They have found that it is impossible to divest themselves from such sources because they have ceded so much to China in the name of profit and expedience.
There are alternatives.
China has achieved sufficiently bad publicity over the pet food scandal. The federal government could require all American foods and food additives with ingredients from China be brightly labelled in yellow with "Ingredients from China!" Businesses that did not comply or are found in violation could, theoretically, be forced to accept severe fines and penalties.
As it stands, there is no requirement at the moment that food manufacturers inform consumers, on the package, where the potentially dodgy materials in them originate.
Your friendly neighborhood GlobalSecurity.Org Senior Fellow knows consumers would quickly make their choices, providing great incentive to American businesses to revamp and fix the problem of outsourced supply chains.
Why?
Because people would read "Ingredients from China!" as "Contains poison!"
Sales of goods with such a label would suffer immediate negative consequences in the marketplace in competition with more expensive goods that do not have to post such a label.
It's one solution but it probably won't happen, either. American businessmen would fight it tooth and nail. They know they would have to make immediate changes, changes which would certainly impact quarterly profits, or face ruin.
Politicians are now fond of making what will surely be a transient noise about how the USDA, the FDA, and other agencies will be strengthened. They make farting sounds about keeping the food safe and have appointed a "czar" whose name no one can remember since it is assumed to be a meaningless gesture.
"The Center for Veterinary Medicine (CVM) is working with other federal agencies to help the country prepare for a biological emergency, natural disaster or terrorist attack by making sure there is a safe and adequate supply of animal drug products and a safe animal feed supply system," writes someone from the FDA on its website.
Fine words, eh?
They were written well before the tainted pet food scandal.
"Al-Qaeda has studied U.S. agriculture, which is in need of defense, FBI deputy director John Pistole told about 900 people gathered at the Westin Crown Center . . . 'I believe that the terrorist threat is changing and even adapting — but so are we,' Pistole said at a government Keep-The-Food-Safe industry seminar in 2006.
Boy, that man certainly knew what was going on now, didn't he?
Poisoned toothpaste from China at the Reg.
Evan Bayh on Chinese imports in the Ft. Wayne Journal Gazette.
'Eat Zinc!" on diethylene glycol in medicines.
Incidental agroterrorism.
posted by George Smith at 10:02 AM
1 Comments:
Of course you could do the opposite: "No ingredients from China". Though I imagine that you'd need a group of food manufacturer's to do this.
People have been conditioned to read the warnings on cigarette packets and ignore them, so who knows if it'll have any effect. Alternately, you could get an enterprising local supermarket owner who voluntarily labels all foods.
In the short term, putting "No ingredients from China" will probably require less printed labels.
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