A wide range of Chinese agricultural products will now be immediately impounded at the Canadian border and subject to testing before being allowed into the country:
Canada's food inspectors have issued border lookouts for vegetable proteins coming from China to prevent melamine — a chemical used to make plastics — from contaminating the human food chain, CBC News has learned.
Inspectors will seize wheat gluten, soy proteins, corn glutens and rice proteins from China — ingredients already found to contain melamine and other contaminants in hundreds of pet-food products. The proteins are destined for human food.
"That's why we have the border lookout for the ingredient, so that we can proactively assess any potential that the product is contaminated," said Paul Mayers of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.
"We will subject the shipments to testing and the shipment will be held until the results of the test clear it in terms of the absence of the contaminant."
Consider what this means. If I make pizza dough or baby formula, a key ingredient is going to be held up at the border by the CFIA. That means I'll be scrambling to find a short term stop-gap supply, even if it is more expensive. But even as I approach Canadian, Australian, American, or European suppliers (all produce these glutens and proteins for export), the suppliers will be taking the opportunity to pitch that their product, though more expensive, is of high quality, as demanded by their domestic markets.
How much is that peace of mind worth?
Of course, the Chinese products will get through...eventually. But the delays along with the bad optics means that the Chinese are going to work hard to recapture lost sales. Imagine the slogan "Does not contain Chinese glutens or proteins" plastered on items being sold on grocery shelves. How many people would be happy to pay a few cents more for that sort of assurance? By delaying all imports, Canadian producers will have the opportunity to try it out on a level playing field.
Of course, don't expect the Chinese to roll over. I'm willing to be that they'd be looking to ship their material through less-than-honest third parties in other countries who are willing to repackage and relabel the material in order to hide the point of origin. I mean, if they are already willing to toss industrial fertilizer and plastics chemicals into the food, the crime of relabeling a package has to seem trivial by comparison.
Consider this too. Canada is probably a small market for Chinese exporters. But what if American consumers get wind of this and start demanding that their officials offer at least as much protection to American citizens as Canadians will be getting? That will make the Chinese very uncomfortable indeed.
Check out what Canadian bloggers have written about the pet food recall
Results will open in a new window.
Check out other entries from the Pet Food Recall category
Results will open in a new window.
Check out other entries from the True Crime category
Results will open in a new window.
Hat tip to reader Anne.
More updates at OTB. Glittering Eye looks into the biological mechanism in detail. Vanishing America looks at the question of American imports of foreign foods.
