Buying from China

A

aussiegal

Registered User
I'm curious to know if people buy food from China. I have to admit to not trusting anything from the Mainland at all and so buy only imported food. You just have to read the news each day to see that another company has been found to be doing something wrong. It's never ending.

What I don't understand is their (the gov and the companies involved) complete lack of regard for their own people and others, namely their export partners. In their quest for the all mighty dollar i can't help but think that people around the world are wising up to their lack of controls (gov) and ethics (the companies involved who knowingly use toxic substances or lie about ingredients and contents). I think it's outrageous that for me to feel safe feeding my family i have to resort to buying food exported from my home country.

How does everyone else feel?
 
i agree and disagree. i think what we need to keep in mind is that what we hear in the new is just that, news. cnn isn't going to report that everything is up to code... that's just not a juicy story.

i think in the case w/ the toy recalls, mattel (fisher-price) should take part of the responsibility as well. if the toys weren't done according to their specs, they should not have accepted the merchandise and demand that they re-do it. but in the business world, fisher price would never say they were partly at fault just bc it's bad for business.

for food, i've been eating food from china since childhood while growing up in the states. now that i'm in hk, i buy the fresh veg and meat that is from china. we hear about the slip ups in the china system bc we are physically in this area. but it happens in a lot of places. remember the spinach laced w/ e.coli in california not too long ago? there are no perfect systems. all we (or they) can do is improve upon what is in place when a loophole surfaces.

that's just my 2 cents.
 
Since the birdflu outbreak I have stopped buying meat from China and am reluctant to buy vegatables from the mainland as well.

I understand that the US and China are currently in a battle about exports and imports, and the US seems to be struggling with China's new manufacturing status as it is obviously hurting US businesses etc.....and I personally don't trust the US govt. anymore than I trust the Chinese govt....and I do think a lot of the recalls, warnings etc. lately have been politically motivated, or they have been exaggerated as part of the political tug of war.

However I'm still reluctant to buy foodstuffs from China because corruption in the mainland is still rife- and the problem is not that they don't have safety regulations and inspections in place but that they are not being enforced as they should....
 
Aussiegal - I'm an Australian as well and I admit to paying HK$20 for a bag of West Australian carrots when I can get the Chinese version for HK$6. As well as being expensive, it is hideously enviromentally unfriendly.

Some things you just can't avoid. Availability of Australian port can be a bit hit and miss (at PnS at least) so the only alternative is pork from China. But also some things are only available from China - eg. coriander, Chinese veges like Bok Choy (that's what I call it anyway), etc.

I agree that you just don't know what goes into the production of food in China and I have no faith whatsoever that PnS check it properly. If they can't detect rotting food on their own shelves, they can't properly monitor food in China. Frankly, butcher/meat shops in unrefridgerated wet markets is just plain unhygenic and vile.

I suppose all you can do is minimise what you eat from sources you can't trust.
 
Miaka, Actually I get most of my news on line because frankly i don't believe a lot of what is in the papers here. HK seems to kowtow to the Mainland a lot. Like recently the story of the man putting cardboard into pork something or other and selling it. It was retracted the next day as a lie, which I don't believe..

I agree that other countries have issues too. For example I avoid meat from the US. But I still think that China follows its own rules when it comes to the production process or perhaps its just as Bekyboo44 says, they have the rules in place just don?t enforce as they should. There was the other recent story of dodgy pet food. The gov denied that it came from China immediately but then had to retract it when the company responsible owned up to it. There were stories of toothpaste and on another thread I just read that there were problems with baby formula made in China that led to the death of some babies. Maybe we're spoilt in Australia but you simply don't hear stories like that happening at home.

And then if you start to consider all the counterfeit products, everything from luxury goods to medicine, I don't see how any one could say that China plays by the same rules as other countries. I don't hear of any other country forcing companies that want to do business in China to reveal how they make their products as a prerequisite to doing business there....

But a big part of the blame lies with us westerners. We are addicted to cheap goods (think of how successful wal-mart is) so there will always be a financial incentive for China to keep doing what it does.
 
aussiegal, i also read all my news online. I remember a story about nestle (a long time ago) where they made a baby formula that didn't have enuf nutrition. so it got pulled from the shelves. this incident lead to the US gov putting regulations on baby formula (a good thing) but in the end, instead of throwing out the bad formula, nestle sold it to 3rd world countries and advertised it as better than breast milk. (a bad thing).

you're very lucky that you don't have such problems in australia. =) i agree with the other responses above that china does have rules, but they aren't enforced. i still have hope that it will get better. since moving here to hk, i've seen this other side of the US and feel that i've been living in a bubble. i don't trust the US gov as much as i used to, but i still try to be optimistic (in regards to the US and China - maybe a bit naive of me).

if you're worried about the food from china and you can afford it, just get imports. nothing better than your own peace of mind. i got some fruit/veg wash at city super and use it to wash my produce. no idea if it really works, but it makes me feel better. good luck!
 
Ever since seeing a documentary on food production in China, I just can't bring myself to eat anything from there.
The investigator used a hidden camera, and I saw with my own eyes steamed pork buns being made with a combination of meat mixed with cardboard that had been soaked in ammonia!
The list of other horror stories was long!

The difference with food scares in the rest of the world compared to China, is that in the rest of the world it is a mistake, where as a lot of it in China is deliberate, to cut costs.

If a food scare occurs in the US or Australia, it can cost millions and ruin their reputations forever, as yet in China, there are few consequences.
 
The card board story was a lie, the person who did that is in Jail. I agree that there is lot of bad stuff out of China, but really it is not possible to cut everything made in China and I firmly beleive if anything bad is to to happen will happen irrespective of how many precautions u take. That doesnot mean that u dont precautions . I just feel that things are getting blown out of proportion here. I am careful what we eat etc but atthe same time I am not paranoid
 
I think Matty's comment is spot on "The difference with food scares in the rest of the world compared to China, is that in the rest of the world it is a mistake, where as a lot of it in China is deliberate, to cut costs."

With regards to the recent pet food scandal where at least 14 dogs died and god knows how many humans were affected as it was also fed to livestock the company involved deliberately added melamine to the grain to make it appear higher in protein than they were...

Quoting from USA Today- "Luo Yunbo, head of the Food Science and Nutritional Engineering Institute at China's Agricultural University, said that some Chinese food manufacturers include additives that are inappropriate.

"Sometimes people lack enough knowledge of additives, or even if they do know, they still do it," he said. "The current penalties are very small and should be much heavier. Some companies are fined and then move somewhere else and do it again," he said.
"Farmers are always looking for profit, and sometimes they do not meet our national standards.."

Yes we have a choice and if you can afford to buy imported food do it but what about all the people who can't?
 
Neha, the cardboard story was filmed, and the man described the process he was using to make these pork buns, as he did not know the undercover investigator had a hidden camera.
I saw it myself.
Yes, he is now in jail, I'm a little confused by what you are refering to as a lie.
 
Who is in jail?

The facotry owner who put cardboard in the pork buns, or the reporter who uncovered the story?

The Chinese government routinely imprisons reporters, journalists, and indeed anyone who they believe might taint the image of China around the world....
 
Neha is right, the story is a hoax, read here:-
http://www.shanghaidaily.com/sp/article/2007/200708/20070813/article_327042.htm
This is widely reported in all newspapers. I think some of us need to read more newspaper so that our minds are more opened. Food safety issues do not just happen in China alone, it may be in anywhere in the world, I agree with Neha when she says,"I agree that there is lot of bad stuff out of China, but really it is not possible to cut everything made in China and I firmly beleive if anything bad is to to happen will happen irrespective of how many precautions u take. That doesnot mean that u dont precautions . I just feel that things are getting blown out of proportion here. I am careful what we eat etc but atthe same time I am not paranoid.". Did you guys not read about the Meat Hope scam, Ishiya Chocolate Factory scam, Fujiyo-Peko scam, it happens in Japan as well!!!
 
I've lived in Hong Kong for the past 15 years. I buy fruit & vegetables and meat & fish at the wet market. I prefer to eat meat that has been slaughtered this morning, than eat an animal that was slaughtered who-knows-when and then flown in.

Same reason I'm a bit sad over the demise of the local chicken stalls. I feel more secure if I can see that the bird looks healthy & active and is killed very close to the time of cooking.

Fish - again prefer live or very fresh to frozen in the supermarket. But yes we did avoid eels during the malachite green scare.

I do end up buying meat from NZ & Australia in the supermarket from time to time, because I'm shopping there and don't want to make an extra trip to a different shop.

Dairy products:
I buy the local (Dairy farm) yoghurt sometimes, mostly as a starter for my own yoghurt. I buy the same brand of sour cream & cottage cheese. I buy the NZ "Mainland" cheddar because that's the only reduced-fat cheddar that I like. The parmesan and fancy cheese - also imported.

Olive oil & fancy vinegars - imported. Wine - not Chinese. Beer - whatever catches my husband's fancy. He's been into the Tsingtao lately, but other times he likes Heineken, and still other, Fosters.

My husband and I are a little careful about buying some products (would prefer HK-made noodles, for example, over Chinese-made). But, you can only spend so much time worrying about things like that.
I get more worried about packaged food than fresh stuff - but I just bought some frozen xiao long bao for the kids as a treat for the start of school next week.

When we buy our fruit & veggies, we wash them carefully & some we peel.

IMHO it's silly to spend 3 times the price to buy Australian carrots instead of local carrots. But, it's not my $ and if that's one's pleasure: go for it. I probably spend $ on some things that are important to me that others might think silly.
 
bekyboo44 said:
The Chinese government routinely imprisons reporters, journalists, and indeed anyone who they believe might taint the image of China around the world....
Click to expand...

Indeed, they put out a warning to journalists about reporting this stuff. We try not to buy food from China. Can't totally avoid it, but we do look and buy from elsewhere. We consider ourselves to be honorary Aussies due to the amount of food we buy from there.
 
Mailmail, i take everything i read in local papers and Mainland (online or traditional) with a grain of salt. China is trying hard to reverse the perception we westerners have of the country and I simply don't believe that 1) they report everything bad that happens - just enough to make some of us think they do and 2) that they don't write out right lies when it suits. I saw the filming of the cardboard/pork bun incident and i'm sticking with the original story which holds it to be true. Let's just remember that in China even today there is no such thing as real freedom of the press.
 
I totally see your point, but why single out China when everything you said happens everywhere in the world. Even USA has no such thing as absolute freedom of the press, probably more so than China. As for food scams in the US which was not just plain mistakes, but deliberate so as to cut cost, we can have a taste of it through the book "Fast Food Nation" by Eric Schlossar, ditto on European countries and Japaneses (I quoted the three most recent food scams/scandals in my last post). All these were NOT mistakes, but deliberate so as to cut costs. The owners/management of these corporations are just greedy and immoral, period. It happens everywhere in the world. Yet, I must say, Australia, so far has been very trustworthy when it comes to food safety and standards. So, I completely understand why you feel safer buying food imported from Australia.
 
I would definatley believe something that I saw on film with my own eyes over something I read in the paper.
There are some holes in that newspaer article, compared to what was aired on TV.
Espescially when the guy admitted exactly what he was doing.

Do you not understand the meaning of the word propaganda?
The Chinese govt. is working very hard on damage control at the moment, as it seems to be one story after another that is focusing the worlds attention on China.

I think the only reason we are picking on China at the moment is because there have been a series of scares, one after the other.
I don't understand why people are so defensive.
Do you think it's OK for your family to be exposed to this stuff in the name of cheap products?
If it was happening anywhere else, I'd be equally outraged.

I heard another charming one reported on Australia network the other day.
Wet hand wipes, being made from recycled hospital waste.
 
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Thanks mailmail. Our point exactly at the beginning of this thread was to be cautious and " crazy" with fear about everything chinese. Pretty impossible to live in HK and not use Chinese products.

Well every country be it Third world like China or developped nations like USA( Iraq war , weapons of mass destruction) use media for their own benefit. I just feel that why dont we give the Central govt in this instance ( Buns) the benefit of doubt. There are alot of people who are unhappy about Beijing holding the Olympic games so it can be their work.China did accept that there was excessive lead in the paint so they might be telling the truth for once. Things are changing china for the better and it si not easy for them to change teh system overnight.

Everything u see on TV is not necessarly all true they can also make up stuff to fool people just as writing false reports.

Have a good day
 
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