Spiked
Forget about that story about siopao filled with cardboard mixed with meat. That has been exposed as a cheap stunt pulled off by a free-lance television reporter, who has since been detained by Chinese authorities. But not those chewy White Rabbit Creamy Candies, or at least not yet, even if the Chinese manufacturer swears by its products and threatens to sue the local Bureau of Food and Drugs for banning their sale.The BFAD earlier this week ordered a stop to the importation and sale of the White Rabbit candies made by Guan Sheng Yuan Group Co., the Milk Candies of Romanticfish Food Industry Co., the grape biscuits of Dongguan Bairong Foodstuff Co. and Dongguan Yongkang Food Co. The BFAD said tests done on samples of these candies and biscuits imported from China indicated that they contained formaldehyde, a preservative often used by embalmers. It ordered distributors and retailers of these products to take them off the shelves within 30 days. Prolonged use of the chemical could lead to cancer of the lungs, according to health experts.
The manager of the candy-making firm, however, said independent tests had yielded no traces of the chemical. “Our products have passed tests with strict standards,” he said.
Maybe. But those White Rabbit candies were among more than 800 products imported from China being tested for contamination by the agency, and they were among the only four found to be laced with formaldehyde so far. So, why would the agency single out these particular candies and cookies for banning?
The fact is that thousands of Chinese products are now under the microscope in many countries, not only for shoddy workmanship but also for shady manufacturing practices that could prove harmful, if not fatal, to consumers. Questions about the quality of Chinese exports started to crop up after American motorists complained about the poor performance of tires made in China. Then, a total of 16 cats and dogs were reported to have died in the United States after being fed with pet foods imported from China. Tests later showed that the pet foods contained melamine, a substance used in lamination and adhesive materials.
Far worse was what happened in Panama, where 93 persons died from poisoning after drinking Chinese-made cough preparations. The medicines were found to contain diethylene glycol, a material used in refrigeration and air-conditioning. Ingestion of the chemical leads to kidney and liver damage.
Diethylene glycol has also been found in Chinese-made toothpaste sold locally, according to the BFAD. The sale of toothpaste from China is now prohibited in North and South America.
The situation is much worse inside China. Newsweek in a recent article quoted an Asian Development Bank estimate putting at 300 million the number of Chinese suffering from food-borne diseases every year. The magazine also reported several horror stories told by Chinese consumer advocates about food additives that lowered men’s sperm counts, soy sauce containing arsenic, and fast-foods spiked with hormones that resulted in 6-year-old boys growing facial hair, and 7-year-old girls developing breasts. Tainted infant formula has also been blamed for the death of at least 50 babies and left 200 others malnourished, Newsweek reported.
To their credit, Chinese officials seem to be keenly aware of the problem and are moving to address it. The Chinese agency tasked with ensuring product quality and safety has said that from December last year up to May this year, it had shut down 180 factories after discovering 23,000 food products that were either substandard or tainted with harmful chemicals. And as if to show how serious it is about enforcing quality standards, the Chinese government executed last week the first chief of the China State Food and Drug Administration for approving the sale of fake medicines in exchange for bribes.
Chinese authorities say they have made significant headway in enforcing quality standards, noting that the proportion of products that passed recently was the highest ever. An earlier government survey showed that less than 1 percent of food exported—but 20 percent of products sold in the domestic market—was substandard.
But a 99 percent passing mark is not good enough, especially when it comes to food. Indeed it should serve notice both to Philippine regulatory agencies and to the buying public to be doubly wary about buying Chinese foods, medicines, toothpaste and similar products. Until such imports are cleared locally, the rule should be: Better safe than sorry.
