- FDA Opens New Offices in China

Written by Ann Shibler

Tuesday, 25 November 2008 15:52

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is opening three offices in China. Expect China in return to station their own “quality officials” in the United States very soon, as part of a new global strategy to ensure product safety.

Everyone knows that it’s Chinese products -- from toothpaste to dog food, to drugs and medicines -- that have been toxin-laden and contaminated to the point where product ingestion sometimes caused fatalities, not U.S. products. The latest problem to show up in Chinese foodstuffs is the industrial chemical melamine found in dairy products, snacks, and chocolates. Tens of thousands of Chinese children were sickened, with the Chinese government actually admitting to three child deaths as a result.

The Chinese are notorious for lacking any type of food quality standards. Illegally run operations and legally run operations alike have been guilty of introducing unsafe chemicals and food additives into their products in the interests of saving money. Health concerns don’t even enter into the food production picture over there.

The Chinese vice health minister Shao Mingli’s statement that, “Our first priority is to protect public health and life,” seems a bit disingenuous, then, as product contaminations continue to be found to this very day in foods that are lined up for import into this country. David Acheson, an FDA associate commissioner, said multiple tests across a variety of brands from a variety of Chinese manufacturers still show positive results for melamine.

Mingli’s comments seem to be, however, music to Michael Leavitt’s ears. Leavitt said his FDA, now opening three offices in China, will work to establish an independent Chinese certification of products program. But isn't this the flawed program that already exists? The new and improved certification program will help goods clear the U.S. fence much faster -- and that, ladies and gentlemen, is the real name of the game.

In the past year the United States imported $2 trillion worth of goods from China. And the U.S. government wouldn’t want to upset that apple cart in any way. Because of mounting concerns by American consumers that food from China is automatically suspect which caused a drop in consumer trust and buying, the FDA is going to try and paint a prettier picture by establishing a presence in China.

The FDA will operate the three offices with eight staff members, who are supposed to keep track of local facilities, provide guidance on U.S. quality standards, inspect plants, and train the Chinese to conduct inspections on behalf of the FDA. Eight, you read that right, eight people.

Don’t you feel better about all of this now?

Leavitt hinted at some legislative hurdles that need to be overcome in this exchange process, but gave no details. I would suspect that having the Chinese established as quality officials on this side of the ocean will take some legislative string-pulling to accomplish. Again, no details about their mission. It could be to further monitoring of their own products, or perhaps to monitor of U.S. exports to China (are there any of those?), or maybe something else entirely. One can only speculate.

The only real way to stop inferior and dangerous goods from being introduced into the food supply chain is to stop buying products from these suspect countries in the first place. It would do our own economy a world of good in the bargain. Safety and health concerns would disappear almost instantly and almost entirely, and Americans would enjoy safer, healthier, and probably wider selection of foodstuffs at the supermarket with products from American farmers and manufacturers. The purchasing and consuming of foreign products only supports foreign economies and governments, and poor food manufacturing practices as well.

Establishing an FDA office in China is just plain window dressing and nothing more.