Besides China, India, Mexico too sources of dubious food

At a time when Chinese imports are under fire for being contaminated or defective, federal records suggest that China is not the only country that has problems.

In fact, federal inspectors have stopped more food shipments from India and Mexico in the last year than they have from China, an analysis of data maintained by the Food and Drug Administration shows.

China has had much-publicised problems with contaminated seafood--including a temporary ban late last month on imports of five species of farm-raised seafood from China--but federal inspectors refused produce from the Dominican Republic and candy from Denmark more often.

For instance, produce from the Dominican Republic was stopped 817 times last year, usually for containing traces of illegal pesticides. Candy from Denmark was impounded 520 times.

By comparison, Chinese seafood was stopped at the border 391 times during the last year. “The reality is, this is not a single-country issue at all,” said Carl R Nielsen, who resigned from the Food and Drug Administration in 2005, after 28 years. His last job was director of the division of import operations and policy in the agency's Office of Regulatory Affairs. “What we are experiencing is massive globalisation,” he said.

In addition, the FDA inspects only about 1 per cent of the imports that fall under its jurisdiction. So the agency may miss many of the products that are contaminated or defective. The FDA database also fails to disclose the quantity of products that are refused, so it is impossible to know whether just a box of cucumbers was refused or a shipload.

In cases of recurrent problems, the FDA may issue an import alert, which leads to additional scrutiny at the border. Last month, for instance, the FDA issued not only the import alert for the Chinese fish, but also import alerts for Mexican cantaloupes and basmati rice from India, among others.

Rafael Laveaga, a spokesman for the Mexican Embassy in Washington, said the number of food safety problems from Mexican imports was minuscule given the huge volume of trade. He said that Mexican products were more scrutinised since they arrived by road transit.

... contd.