Early on in the pet food recall scandal I asked a question. Let’s say you’re an American company dealing with a foreign company that you’ve never physically visited and, indeed, may not know anyone who’s physically visited. Your overseas supplier fails to perform, ships you the wrong stuff, or even defrauds you. You attempt to seek redress in the supplier’s home country (your only recourse). What’s to stop the supplier from pulling up stakes, disappearing, and starting up all over again across town or across the country? We now have our answer—nothing:
WASHINGTON, May 10 (Reuters) – U.S. investigators found shuttered factories when they arrived at the Chinese food processors blamed for putting the chemical melamine into vegetable proteins shipped to America, officials said on Thursday.
The proteins were used in feed for pets, hogs, poultry and fish. All the suspect products have been traced to two makers in China, U.S. Food and Drug Administration officials said during a news conference.
“We visited the two facilities and there is essentially nothing to be found because they are closed down,” said Walter Batts, head of FDA’s office of international investigations. An FDA team has been in China since April 30.
“Nothing is available to be seen at the facilities. They were closed down, machinery dismantled,” said Batts.
Chinese officials did obtain samples at the facilities in April and sent them to an independent laboratory for testing, he said. “We assume we will have access to those when the results are ready.”
FDA said it received “extensive cooperation” from China’s General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine but also noted the agency had “limited authority” over the processors. Officials said they were satisfied the agency shared its information with FDA.
I’m sure the appropriate Chinese government agencies did provide extensive cooperation with the FDA and as soon as someone figures who, what, or where the miscreants are, they’ll be looking right into it.
Apparently, another U. S. company received adulterated Chinese vegetable proteins in the pet food scandal that shows little sign of abating. This time it’s Cereal Byproducts Co., a Chicago-area firm:
WASHINGTON — A Chicago-area feed supply company is the latest U.S. business to find itself implicated in the distribution of tainted rice protein from China, the Food and Drug Administration confirmed Thursday, raising the specter that customers of the firm may have unwittingly spread the contaminant melamine in pet food.
Cereal Byproducts Co., which has plants in five states and a headquarters in Mt. Prospect, issued a recall for the rice protein products on May 4. The company’s products went to three pet food manufacturers.
The Mount Prospect has declined to name the company’s whose products have been affected.
Three-quarters of Oregon’s fish hatcheries received tainted feed.
Reporters asked some excellent questions in the most recent USDA/FDA joint press conference including questions about the available science and the longterm effects of the pet food adulteration. I continue to have a problem with the USDA and FDA’s certititude in the absence of facts. The ineluctable fact is that dogs and cats died and in Menu Foods’s lab tests, died very quickly. The deaths happened and if the present theory doesn’t account for that there’s something wrong with the theory not something wrong with the facts.
Finally, columnist Georgie Anne Geyer urges putting pressure on China:
So what exactly can the United States, Europe and other affected countries do against a country whose lack of regulations and laissez-faire attitude toward food standards could be poisoning us all, pets and humans alike? Actually, plenty!
Above all, China seeks a place in the world alongside the big, industrialized societies. We must tell China that it will not get that place until it begins to abide by the rules of the Big Boys. This can be done through innumerable international organizations, as well as tough private diplomacy. Individual consumers could stop buying Chinese porducts.
Private diplomacy, shiplomacy. Public shame. Complain.
