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Here we go again - Japan’s ministry of health has ordered its retailers to stop distribution of all frozen beans imported from China, after a woman fell ill eating beans with 34,500 times the legal limit of pesticides. The woman is fine - she checked in to the hospital after vomiting and feeling “numbness in her mouth” after eating a dish made with the beans, and was released following an overnight stay, but given the recent milk powder debacle, the ministry of health wanted to take no chances.

Tests by the Tokyo government revealed the high pesticide content of the beans, which were manufactured by Yantai Beihai Foodstuff in Shandong Province in eastern China. Investigation results showed no problems in the manufacturing process, as the detected pesticide (dichlorvos) has never even been used by the company, deeming the contaminated batch of beans an isolated incident.

Here’s where the story gets even weirder - a pinprick was found in the package, suggesting that the beans may have been sabotaged after leaving the manufacturer. It’s unlikely that the pesticides would have remained in such high concentration had it been a manufacturing error, as the beans are washed and boiled before being frozen, which would have likely diluted any residual pesticides.

Is somebody deliberately trying to soil China’s reputation? While the government has cleared Yantai of any wrongdoing, the damage has already been done, in the wake of toxic toys, deadly dumplings, and the malignant milk powder. It’s clear that Chinese manufacturers need to get their act together and prioritize the safety of their products over the extra bit of profit margin, but deliberate acts of culinary terrorism isn’t helping the cause.


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11 Comments »

There’s a legal limit?


Can’t you wash it off and it’ll be okay?


Guess not. A lot of bad things are happening to China. I really wonder if Jerry is right about somebody trying to spoil China’s reputation.


As if China didn’t have enough problems already.


Even if they were trying to sabotage China, why couldn’t they do it in a way that didn’t hurt people?


sakura: there’s bound to be residual pesticides on any vegetable product (unless it’s organic), but the limits are kept very very low for public health reasons.  they should be safe at much higher amounts, as transgenic foods are tested on lab mice at huge concentrations (~100k times the expected amount) and have no adverse effects. 

zinger: that’s the weird thing… the beans are washed and boiled before they are frozen and leave the factory, so i’m guessing the lady didn’t wash them after taking them out of the package.  lesson to all - wash your food before eating/cooking, no matter where it came from!


Here in the US, the government spends 2.1 billion USD (Yes, BILLION) trying to catch US food manufacturers from trying to sneak bad food into stores:
http://www.fda.gov/oc/oms/ofm/budget/2008/summary.html

and Americans still get sick off from American-made food:
http://www.boston.com/news/health/blog/2008/08/seventh_e_coli.html
(in case non-American readers don’t know: Whole Foods is supposed to be the super healthy American food store and it charges extra for that)

but somehow China’s food problems get so much more coverage in the American press. Something to think about…


“Food for thought” haha


That was cheesy.

But yeah America food isn’t always the best. You wouldn’t believe all the crap they do in fast food restaurants.


Hmmm, interesting thought, that someone might be trying to damamge China’s reputation. I do worry about racism and xenophobia getting tied up with Chinese recall notices.

Related story...did you hear about the many Chinese workers being laid off from manufacturing jobs amid the economic slowdown?

http://elena.ningin.com


dang, thats a lot of pesticide



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