Dozens sick after meal at Chinese school...(3rd case in one week)

Source: Associated Press

BEIJING - More than 50 children were poisoned by a kindergarten breakfast in central China, state media said Thursday, in the latest case highlighting problems in the country's food supply chain.

ADVERTISEMENT

Xinhua News Agency said the children were hospitalized after eating breakfast Wednesday at a private kindergarten in Zhengzhou city in Henan province. Thirty had been released and the others remained under observation.

Doctors believe soybean milk given to the children was not boiled properly, Xinhua said.

Mass poisonings are common in China, which has been struggling to improve a dismal food safety record. Manufacturers often mislabel food products or add illegal substances to them. Cooks routinely disregard hygiene rules.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070426/ap_on_he_me/china_food_poisoning;_ylt=AqRqCSbv9k4jsXFd0PDz96PMWM0F

---

"Mass poisonings are common in China"....

food safety standards. India too for that matter. This is one reason I am careful about what I buy to feed my Indian husband. We were very careful when we traveled. I had a vendor try to sell me bottled water with a broken seal and my daughter witnessed a waiter spitting in the water pitcher they were serving us from (guess they jealous of Indians and Americans mixing-and this was BEFORE the Iraq War).
I think China is about the worst though. The tainted gluten does not surprise me at all.

Especially with spotty FDA oversight and infrequent testing. It's one thing to import a plastic laundry basket and another entirely to bring in baby's breakfast from a country that poisons its kids. (And all the while we're importing food, aren't we subsidizing our own farmers? There's something wrong with this picture.)

The Leader will get you for that.

and doing things on the cheap - with a total disregard for public health and safety. Just look at how the FDA and Dept of Ag treated the Mad Cow testing - I believe that they just further lowered the % of meat tested (miniscule) and that until recently (or maybe still) small companies that wanted to voluntarily test each head (of cattle) to cater to the niche healthfood market - were prevented by the government from doing so - reportedly under pressure from the big meat companies (because then there might be public demand for those corps to do the same - something they did not want to do due to cost).

All these big pet food manufacturers holding off on
calling for voluntary recalls simply because they're
worried about profits!

Drs. Foster and Smith waited one week after the news
that the rice protein supplied to them by Wilbur-Ellis
may be contaminated. One week. These people need
to go down. I hope they're investigated and found
criminally negligent.

In more upbeat news, I recall reading that a court recently ruled in favor of a cattle grower who wanted to test all his livestock but had been prevented from doing so by USDA.

http://www.charlotte.com/127/story/97981.html

Eat at your own risk -- U.S. safety rules weak
Unregulated imported food ingredients pose threat to humans, pets

Lost amid the anxiety surrounding the tainted U.S. pet food supply is this sobering reality: It's not just pet owners who should be worried. The uncontrolled distribution of low-quality imported food ingredients, mainly from China, poses a grave threat to public health worldwide.

Essential ingredients, such as vitamins used in many packaged foods, arrive at U.S. ports from China and, as recent news reports have underscored, are shipped without inspection to food and beverage distributors and manufacturers. Although they are used in relatively small quantities, these ingredients carry enormous risks for American consumers. One pound of tainted wheat gluten could, if undetected, contaminate as much as a thousand pounds of food.

Bushitler has created this every man for himself you know.

They all told me that they use ingredients from all over the world in their products......but they carefully inspect all ingredients and providers. LOL

I thanked them for the corporate lip service and told them that is exactly what it was...fantasy talk. They provided the words that consumers want to hear so they can feel warm and fuzzy for the moment.... but is far from reality. There is no way that they can verify the provenance of the ingredients from China and elsewhere, let alone if they are contaminated or tainted or purposely poisoned by terrorists. The USDA/FDA only tests a fraction of a percent of any consumable food or supplements in this country.

The dog/cat food manufacturers said the same thing while the event went on and on and more pets died.

If there is a major health event from imported foods or supplements, it will take them weeks to figure out the source, especially if there are multiple sources. Meanwhile it will be mass confusion and hysteria in this country.

We need all food products and supplements labeled so that we consumers, and not the profit hungry corporations drive the market.

of what we spend in iraq in one week. i have not figured out the usda food safety budgetyet

they need more money, (/sarcasm) to WakeTF up.

Get it up to top of Greatest Page where it can be seen.



The American public has not caught on to his story yet. They still believe the food chain in the good old USA is still carefully monitored and safe. Once they realize that Buxhco has been allowing the poisonous food from China to get into their children's food, the shit will surely hit the fan. Tell me it will...

Wat

in conjunction with her (and John Kerry's) book, This Moment on Earth. The chapter on toxins was written by Teresa, who John said knew far more about them than he did. (No faint praise from a man involved in fighting acid rain in the early 1980s) Teresa has spoken about toxins in food and in the environment for decades - and was criticized by Nixon for doing so. She has held conferences of 2000+ women than deal with woman's health and the environment for 13 years in Boston. Last week, she had one in Pittsburg - that several people live blogged on Dkos and a few other sites. The scientists warned of many toxins that we all come in casual contact with.
Here's a link to the DKos afternoon session (which has a link in it to the morning session)
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/4/20/13916/8857

On the blog tour, 20 blogs each had the chance to ask 3 questions. The complexity and depth of Teresa's answers was well beyond anything I expected - and she provides links to many resources dealing with these issues. Here is a link to the blog schedule - the links go to the home page of each blog - so you need to look at the date on the schedule to find the correct post.

http://www.hfp.heinz.org/programs/blogtour.html


In addition to what we eat, what we put on skin is absorbed as well.

...the parabens and EDTAs...how safe are they? No regulation for cosmetics, soaps, shampoos, deodorant, sun screens.
Hey, the money is spent in advertising and packaging, not in the products, except for brands such as Lavera and Dr. H* and Burt's Bee.

Teresa Heinz Kerry mentioned that in Europe, companies are required to prove a new chemical is safe and there are about 250 banned ingredients while here there are 5.

So, this week, I am throwing out all the wheat gluten products I have - because I don't know where the wheat gluten came from. Between reading the live blogs of THK's convention and the food contamination stories, it a real wake up that everything is not as safe and innocent as they appear.

For the wearer who absorbs and inhales it, and for everyone
around the fumes. It all smells bad these days to boot!

http://www.ewg.org/reports/skindeep

{div class="excerpt"]Have your personal care products been assessed for safety?

Did you know: the government cannot mandate safety studies of cosmetics, and only 11 percent of the 10,500 ingredients FDA has documented in products have been assessed for safety by the cosmetic industry's review panel. Explore your products with Skin Deep's in-depth rating guides, and find safer choices for you and your family.

Once they ban it there.

It is one thing to assume guilt with a corporation, but I would imagine the cooks at a kindergarden did not conspire to harm the children...

If you have ever worked in a resteraunt, you have seen some stupid behavior.

This could have happened here just as easlily-that is if schools were not forced by the government to serve milk products

Obviously the sotmilk must have been contaminated already. Since when
do you have to boil soymilk? Sadly. big biz is protected there too. Remember
when the river were poisoned and people were sick and dying? The
government looked the other way.

http://www.emedicinehealth.com/food_poisoning/article_em.htm

Food Poisoning Overview

Food poisoning is a common, usually mild, but sometimes deadly illness. Typical symptoms include nausea, vomiting, abdominal cramping, and diarrhea that come on suddenly (within 48 hours) of consuming a contaminated food or drink. Depending on the contaminant, fever and chills, bloody stools, dehydration, and nervous system damage may follow. These symptoms may affect one person or a group of people who ate the same thing (this would be called an outbreak).

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that in the United States alone, food poisoning causes about 76 million illnesses, 325,000 hospitalizations, and up to 5,000 deaths each year.

One of the most common bacterial forms of infection, the salmonellae organisms, account for $1 billion in medical costs and lost work time.
Worldwide, diarrheal illnesses are among the leading causes of death. Travelers to developing countries often encounter food poisoning in the form of traveler’s diarrhea or "Montezuma’s revenge." Additionally, there are new global threats to the world's food supply through terrorist actions using food toxins as weapons.


http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/foodcontaminationandpoisoning.html

Food Contamination and Poisoning
Also called: Foodborne illness
Each year, 76 million people in the U.S. get sick from contaminated food. Common culprits include bacteria, parasites and viruses. Symptoms range from mild to serious. They include
Upset stomach
Abdominal cramps
Nausea and vomiting
Diarrhea
Fever
Dehydration
Harmful bacteria are the most common cause of foodborne illness. Foods may have some bacteria on them when you buy them. Raw meat may become contaminated during slaughter. Fruits and vegetables may become contaminated when they are growing or when they are processed. But it can also happen in your kitchen if you leave food out for more than 2 hours at room temperature.
The treatment in most cases is increasing your fluid intake. For more serious illness, you may need treatment at a hospital.


link below added to verify CDC data

http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dbmd/diseaseinfo/foodborneinfections_g.htm#howmanycases
How many cases of foodborne disease are there in the United States?

An estimated 76 million cases of foodborne disease occur each year in the United States. The great majority of these cases are mild and cause symptoms for only a day or two. Some cases are more serious, and CDC estimates that there are 325,000 hospitalizations and 5,000 deaths related to foodborne diseases each year. The most severe cases tend to occur in the very old, the very young, those who have an illness already that reduces their immune system function, and in healthy people exposed to a very high dose of an organism.

Food recalls are ongoing, but are getting more press now. Let's hope some good comes of it in the end.

its a untrustworthy system

Not only that, people pay Big Bucks for it.

The US brand is Silk Soymilk. Very popular premium organic item.

Nothing wrong with soymilk. Plenty wrong with Chinese food safety standards.

Every food or vitamin supplement that is sold in the USA should be clearly marked if it contains content that originated outside the USA. Consumers should have the right to know what we are consuming and where it originated from. Then let the free market decide if educated consumers are willing to pay extra for grown and manufactured in USA food and supplements.

uninformed from themselves. I just came back from the grocery store where I bought some haddock (Product of U.S.A.) for $7.99/lb. Right next to it was a large pile of gorgeous looking tilapia (Product of China) for $3.99/lb. I wouldn't have eaten the tilapia if they gave it to me for free, but someone who doesn't know better will probably buy it over the more expensive fish with U.S. or Canada origins.