House Committee: Chinese Imports Are a "Clear and Present Danger"

Committee on Energy and Commerce Chairman John Dingell (D-MI) and Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations Chairman Bart Stupak (D-MI) presented a report on the safety of Chinese imported food, entitled "Food From China: Can We Import Safely?" The report was the result of a two-week China trip in August by staffers that involved extensive interviews with Chinese officials as well as multinational business executives and reporters from major media outlets that work in China and Hong Kong.

The delegation also tried to report on Chinese toy imports in response to the recent wave of toy recalls involving Chinese-made toys. Attempts to inspect plants and speak with workers were denied by Mattel and one of their Hong Kong-based contractors, Early Light.

Dingell summed up the report in a press release from the Committee on Energy and Commerce: "These findings are first-hand confirmation that food from China presents a clear and present danger to Americans under the current conditions of import. The report makes it clear that significant responsibility rests with unscrupulous importers in this country and a regulatory system that has broken under the weight of the ever increasing imports." He went on to say that the Committee intends to provide the FDA with better resources to deal with "this public health threat."

Stupak went so far as to criticize the Administration and the FDA who "have refused to admit [that] our food import inspection system is broken and incapable of protecting American consumers from potentially deadly imports." He continued by pointing out that Japan tests and sample 15 times the number of shipments that the US currently does. Stupak said that the US should be able to do at least that increased number of inspections.

The report mentions that problems in the quality of Chinese foodstuffs is due to many reasons, but most importantly, that the Chinese farms are no longer collectives, but instead very small family farms. With the threat of economic ruin riding on a single crop or a single season, Chinese farmers are more inclined to use pesticides and other harmful chemicals to ensure as a large as crop as possible. Furthermore, the report cites issues with imports circumventing inspection by coming into ports that do not have FDA testing facilties.

Dingell and Stupak have recently introduced legislation to the House that would significantly improve the United State's system for ensuring the safety of imported food and drugs. The Food and Drug Safety Act of 2007 would increase funds generated from importation that would in turn be used to hire additional personnel to inspect both here at the borders and abroad at FDA labs. Funds would also be used to research new testing and sampling techniques.

Stupak also announced that the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations would continue this series of hearings on the issue of import safety. Hearings on domestic food and safety have been going on since April and the spinach scare. The Subcommittee will hear testimony from officials from the FDA and the Food Safety and Inspection Service of the US Department of Agriculture.

Source: Committee on Energy and Commerce