How much 'garbage' are we eating??

ST Interactive
5 Oct 2008

Seoul - Vegetables grown in China have been found to be tainted with melamine, an unexpected twist in a scandal that has so far involved only dairy and milk products. Malaysian Health Minister Liow Tiong Lai said his ministry had launched checks on all vegetables imported from China after learning from South Korean authorities that they had detected a high level of melamine in Chinese vegetables, Bernama reported.

The report did not give details on how contamination could have happened, but South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported on Friday that pesticide was likely to be blamed. It cited China's Caijing business magazine as saying that experts had discovered melamine in Chinese agricultural products. Some mushrooms were found to contain as much as 17mg of melamine per kg.

An adult can safely consume 0.63mg of melamine per kg of body weight every day, according to standards set by the United States Food and Drug Administration. In response to the reports, Singapore's Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) spokesman Goh Shih Yong told The Sunday Times that melamine is a by-product of the approved pesticide, cyromazine. He said the AVA has in place a programme to inspect the pesticide levels of imported fruits and vegetables. Those failing the test would not be allowed for sale here. 'Imported vegetables from China for consumption in Singapore are safe to eat,' he said.

In other developments in the widening scandal, the Korea Food and Drug Administration ordered Mars to pull its M&M's milk chocolate candies and Snickers peanut Fun Size, and Nestle to recall Kit Kat chocolate bars yesterday after the snacks were found to contain low levels of melamine, Agence France-Presse reported.

TheSnippetSeamstress: a clear example of how global consumers can fall prey to global food producers. Producers have immense power as they supply what we eat, control the amount we eat, the mode of eating as well as the variety of food we consume. As shown in this case, a lack of stringent checks and monitoring can lead to dire consequences. In a bid for profiteering, human health and safety can be badly compromised. We should not leave our lives (and those of the future generation!) in the hands of these unscrupulous capitalists. Let us not push all responsibility to the authorities. We should stop fire-fighting and send out a strong message as consumers that we reject being unwitting 'laboratory rats' for agri-businesses . We should push for more transparency, ethnical conduct and accounting of the global food industry. We should use our power as consumers by being discerning and reject food without clear labelling or sound ethical (e.g. genetically-modified foods, poultry from factory farms) and environmentally friendly (e.g. not dolphin free) practices. By doing so, we will not only be stewards of the environment but also protectors of our own species, our mankind!