China’s export of contaminated vegetable protein resulted in one of the largest pet food recalls in US history (March 2007).
Last tuesday, China’s watchdog AQSIQ (General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine) published their findings. The results so far: 180 plants were closed, 37 firms lost their licence and 11 cases have been forwarded to court. Director Han Yi addressed a press conference and said: “These are not isolated cases”.
Inspectors have uncovered more than 23,000 food safety violations in Chinese plants. Mostly in small plants with less than 10 employees. However, according to China Daily, about 75% of the 1 million food processing plants in China are small and privately owned. Many plants were using industrial chemicals, dyes, recycled or expired food and other illegal ingredients in a range of food products including dog food.
This malpractice appears to be the result of:
- Corruption and bribery.
- Lack of cold storage and logistics systems.
China has become the leading supplier of many ingredients and to completely ban import from this country is not very realistic. The ongoing inspections at least show China’s commitment to future food safety. Thus far officials have underestimated the need for increased inspections and surveillance.
These findings clearly illustrate why it is pertinent for importers to have track and trace controls in place. ChemNutra is organizing a US Summit on Pet Food Safety on July, 14th to address the safety of imported ingredients (refer to blogpost of May 29th).
See the CNN news flash below and conclude for yourself that the poisoning of dog food was not a unfortunate one-of mistake, but the result of structural bribery and an attitude of preferring money over life.
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