China's food safety woes expand overseas
中国食品安全问题影响海外

Updated Fri. Apr. 13 2007 12:35 PM ET

Associated Press

SHANGHAI, China -- The list of Chinese food exports rejected at American ports reads like a chef's nightmare: pesticide-laden pea pods, drug-laced catfish, filthy plums and crawfish contaminated with salmonella.

美国港口拒绝接受的中国出口食品清单听起来像是厨师的噩梦：含农药的豌豆、吃过药的鲶鱼、肮脏的洋李和被沙门氏菌污染的龙虾。

Yet, it took a much more obscure item, contaminated wheat gluten, to focus U.S. public attention on a very real and frightening fact: China's chronic food safety woes are now an international concern.

然而，正式一个鲜为人知的产品-被污染的麦麸，让美国关注一个非常真实和可怕的事实：中国的食品安全问题已经成为全世界关注的问题。

In recent weeks, scores of cats and dogs in America have died of kidney failure blamed on eating pet food containing gluten from China that was tainted with melamine, a chemical used in plastics, fertilizers and flame retardants. While humans aren't believed at risk, the incident has sharpened concerns over China's food exports and the limited ability of U.S. inspectors to catch problem shipments.

近几周来，美国大量的猫和狗死于肾衰竭，原因是吃的宠物食品中含有从中国进口的麦麸，这种麦麸被三聚氰胺（一种用于塑料、肥料和阻燃剂的化学品）污染。虽然人不会受到伤害，但这事情加剧了人们对中国出口食品的担忧，也使人们更担心美国检查人员发现问题货物的能力是有限的。

Just as with manufactured goods, exports of meat, produce, and processed foods from China have soared in recent years, prompting outcries from foreign farm sectors that are feeling pinched by low Chinese prices.

近年来，从中国进口的肉、农产品和加工食品迅速增加，引起了外国农业部门的强烈抗议，因为中国的低价产品给他们带来很大压力。

Worried about losing access to foreign markets and stung by tainted food products scandals at home, China has in recent years tried to improve inspections, with limited success.

一方面担心失去国外市场，一方面又受到国内食品污染问题的刺激，中国近年来努力加强食品安全的监督，但是效果有限。

The problems the government faces are legion. Pesticides and chemical fertilizers are used in excess to boost yields while harmful antibiotics are widely administered to control disease in seafood and livestock. Rampant industrial pollution risks introducing heavy metals into the food chain.

目前政府面临一大堆问题，为了增加产量，农作物中过量使用农药和化肥；为了控制海产品和家畜的疾病，使用有害抗生素的现象很普遍。严重的工业污染使重金属有可能进入食物链。

Farmers have used cancer-causing industrial dye Sudan Red to boost the value of their eggs and fed an asthma medication to pigs to produce leaner meat.

农民们为使鸭蛋卖个好价钱而使用可致癌的工业染料苏丹红，为提高猪的瘦肉率而给猪喂食平喘药。

China's Health Ministry reported almost 34,000 food-related illnesses in 2005, with spoiled food accounting for the largest number, followed by poisonous plants or animals and use of agricultural chemicals.

2005年中国卫生部报告的食品引发疾病的案例近3.4万起，其中变质食品所占比例最大，其次是有毒蔬菜和肉制品及农业化学品的实用。

With China increasingly intertwined in global trade, Chinese exporters are paying a price for unsafe practices. Excessive antibiotic or pesticide residues have caused bans in Europe and Japan on Chinese shrimp, honey and other products. Hong Kong blocked imports of turbot last year after inspectors found traces of malachite green, a possibly cancer-causing chemical used to treat fungal infections, in some fish.

随着中国日益融入全球贸易，中国出口商正为不安全的做法付出代价。过量的抗生素和农药残留使欧洲和日本禁止进口中国的虾、蜂蜜和其他产品。去年在一些鱼中发现可致癌的孔雀石绿（用于某些鱼类的真菌感染治疗）以后，香港开始禁止进口多宝鱼。

One source of the problem is China's fractured farming sector, comprised of small landholdings which make regulation difficult, experts said.

专家们说，造成这个问题的一个原因是中国的农业部门处于割裂状态，增加了管理难度。

For foreign importers, the answer is to know your suppliers and test thoroughly, food industry experts said.

业内专家说，对于外国进口商来说，解决方法就是了解供应商并进行彻底检验。

Shipments from China were rejected at the rate of about 200 per month this year, the largest from any country, compared to about 18 for Thailand, and 35 for Italy, also big exporters to the U.S., according to data posted on the FDA's Web site.

根据美国FDA网站的数字，今年每个月约有200批来自中国的货物被美国拒收，是所有国家中最多的，泰国约18批，意大利35批，他们也是美国主要的食品供应国。

To protect its foreign markets, China is trying to set up a dedicated export supply chain, sealed off from the domestic market. Systems for tracking and tracing vegetables have been set up, although doing so for meat products is harder.

为保护国外市场，中国正努力建立与国内市场隔绝的、专供出口的供应链。对蔬菜进行追踪和检查的体系已经建立，但建立肉制品的追踪和检查体系比较困难。

Large producers targeting foreign markets have also moved to gain greater control over supplies by expanding their operations instead of buying from individual farmers.

The tainted pet food scandal is likely to increase this momentum. More than 100 brands of pet foods and treats have been recalled, one of the largest pet food recalls in history. Menu Foods was the first of at least six companies to recall pet food, beginning in mid-March, after reported cases of cats and dogs developing kidney failure after eating the affected products.

How the contaminated wheat gluten got into the product cycle is not yet known. The gluten was traced to a company outside Shanghai, Xuzhou Anying Biologic Technology Development Co.

The company and the government's inspection and quarantine administration are investigating. But a company sales manager, Geng Xiujuan, said Xuzhou Anying was only a middleman, buying the gluten, commonly used as a thickener in pet food, from companies in neighboring provinces and selling it to a separate trading company.

While no investigation results have been announced, industry experts said they suspect the gluten might have been contaminated by having been processed or stored in machines or containers also used for melamine. Such anomalies show just how difficult it is to ensure purity, they said.