Food Production, safety.

msg · Guru

Food Production, safety.

Ivan 01 · Guru

msg wrote:
20+ Foods From China You Should Never Buy | Richouses
I wonder how widespread these practices are around the world.
Always took comfort that something like this could never happen in Australia and have been very careful to buy only Australian. Not sure now though. Any rice we produce goes to overseas processing factories and then the packed and processed rice is sent back here. Likewise Tuna.
Might just have to rely on eating what I can grow in my back yard. But wait, what about the water and soil I grow it in.

Thank you for that link msg,

It is very concerning seeing most of the food we buy in Aus comes from overseas.

Even the labelling cant be trusted, or is at best, confusing.

Lets hope we always have some control over our water and soil. On thinking further we are already selling those commodities to China. disbelief

Mike Harding · Guru

I'm not particularly sensitive about what I eat however I stopped buying *any* food products from China some years ago and I advise others to do the same.

oldbloke · Guru

We are buying fewer Chinese product these days, one reason being poor quality.
But I do wonder how much of that is just scare mongering.

-- Edited by oldbloke on Friday 21st of January 2022 02:34:30 PM

Craig1 · Guru

Also note that made in New Zealand from "imported product", often means stuff from China, but somehow Kiwi's do not disclose Country of Origin. No offence to the A K's on here, you dont make the rules.

peter67 · Guru

Part of the problem with food quality rests with us. Everybody wants cheapest prices so what do you get?

Clarky 1 · Senior Member

peter67 wrote:
Part of the problem with food quality rests with us. Everybody wants cheapest prices so what do you get?

Yes,

Down, Down, prices are down.. biggrin

Are We Lost · Guru

Hmm, the site does not give me warm vibes that it's a trusted source. Maybe what it says is all true, but I doubt it. Or certainly rare.

When a "news" article on an obscure site provides information like that without stating the source of information, or any reference to validate the statements, I suggest we should all treat it with serious suspicion and wariness as to its authenticity.

Nevertheless I believe the controls over food production in China would be far less stringent than our locally produced food. But if it is a reputable brand I think we would be pretty safe. Having said that, I mostly try to buy Australian produce as long as it is not a lot more expensive. I wish the government would do more to encourage consumption of local produce. The "Australian made" logo is too weak and meaningless.

Wanda · Guru

Are We Lost wrote:
Hmm, the site does not give me warm vibes that it's a trusted source. Maybe what it says is all true, but I doubt it. Or certainly rare.

When a "news" article on an obscure site provides information like that without stating the source of information, or any reference to validate the statements, I suggest we should all treat it with serious suspicion and wariness as to its authenticity.

Nevertheless I believe the controls over food production in China would be far less stringent than our locally produced food. But if it is a reputable brand I think we would be pretty safe. Having said that, I mostly try to buy Australian produce as long as it is not a lot more expensive. I wish the government would do more to encourage consumption of local produce. The "Australian made" logo is too weak and meaningless.

x2

Ian

deverall11 · Guru

We have been avoiding as much as we can anything from China ever since they put us in the
predicament that we and the world are in.
We have stopped buying anything on Ebay that is shipped directly from a seller in China.
I understand that the same good purchased from an Australian seller was probably source
from China, but at least an Australian is making a $.
It is extremely difficult (read nigh on impossible) to buy things that are not made in China.
We saw the demise of Holden, not a great car but at least made in Australia by Australian,
only to see a whole bunch of 'Made In China' various vehicles on the road.

Why are you buying these things people?

Doesn't the pandemic mean anything to you?
I laugh out quite loud when I see someone proudly driving a new MG. Most are poms who
have a distorted sense of loyalty toward the brand. Do they realise it's 'Made In China'?

Cheers,
Larry biggrin

Buzz Lightbulb · Guru

Are We Lost wrote:
Hmm, the site does not give me warm vibes that it's a trusted source. Maybe what it says is all true, but I doubt it. Or certainly rare.

When a "news" article on an obscure site provides information like that without stating the source of information, or any reference to validate the statements, I suggest we should all treat it with serious suspicion and wariness as to its authenticity.

Nevertheless I believe the controls over food production in China would be far less stringent than our locally produced food. But if it is a reputable brand I think we would be pretty safe. Having said that, I mostly try to buy Australian produce as long as it is not a lot more expensive. I wish the government would do more to encourage consumption of local produce. The "Australian made" logo is too weak and meaningless.

Ditto.

It seems like typical USA scare mongering to get attention. If there are no links to where the information is sourced then it's not worth reading.

Besides, Australia has very good food standards and this type of rubbish would be discovered and banned very quickly.

-- Edited by Buzz Lightbulb on Saturday 22nd of January 2022 12:05:24 PM

Rob Driver · Guru

We should doubt the source if the information appears dodgy.

The article was not directed at Australians.

Th article however did mention some of the food anomalies that has been reported by others to be fact.

The melanin milk substitution comes to mind.

*Milk made of melanin caused the deaths of six kids as well as the intoxication of 300,000 others. About 230 tons of milk were trafficked to make the protein count go up. Melanin is very bad for your kidneys.*

My observations are that those who are supposed to be responsible for decisions that protect us all have an ever increasing commitment to wealth and trade regardless if the correct research has been done on an imported product or not.

oldbloke · Guru

Are We Lost wrote:
Hmm, the site does not give me warm vibes that it's a trusted source. Maybe what it says is all true, but I doubt it. Or certainly rare.

When a "news" article on an obscure site provides information like that without stating the source of information, or any reference to validate the statements, I suggest we should all treat it with serious suspicion and wariness as to its authenticity.

Nevertheless I believe the controls over food production in China would be far less stringent than our locally produced food. But if it is a reputable brand I think we would be pretty safe. Having said that, I mostly try to buy Australian produce as long as it is not a lot more expensive. I wish the government would do more to encourage consumption of local produce. The "Australian made" logo is too weak and meaningless.

Agree 100%. And imported food is only rarely tested. They can say it complies with our STD but who is checking?

msg · Guru

Govt used to check a lot of imports up until the 90's but they shut down the laboratories and the testing was taken over by commercial enterprise.

In those days of particular interest were red dishes imported from China (lead content) Imported Dates (Rat sh*t content) and believe it or not, food dumping, swamping the local market.

Regardless of the controls over the food being imported, why on earth are we importing foods in season we grow here in Australia. e.g. oranges. They are grown all year round. Generally, Navels in Winter and Valencias in Summer.

Why are we exporting foods grown here in Australia and importing the same foreign food back.

How come we have foods grown here and exported leaving nothing behind for the local market? E.g. Lamb, Beef and lobster (anyone afford it these days?) and by the way I dislike with a passion Wagu beef with all the fat marbeling. Only indicates unnatural growth to me.

Give me good old beef and lamb as we knew it. Lean and mean.
No wonder we have become so unhealthy.

Who gives a stuff if it complies with World standards. Its not good enough for Australians.

Magnarc · Guru

Part of the problem with food quality rests with us. Everybody wants cheapest prices so what do you get?

Another day older and deeper in debt?????

-- Edited by Magnarc on Sunday 23rd of January 2022 10:31:52 AM

msg · Guru

Ha Ha. Just went into WW online shopping. Thought I might in the interest of Australian Tradition get some lamb chops for the barbie.

On Offer: Available on line. Of course this may change, but the window for delivery by Wednesday has now closed for me.

1/2 Lamb Leg Roast OK but I wanted chops

Lamb Offal Liver - Dog food. Would never eat. Don't care if its good for you.

WW preprepared Lamb Shoulder w Garlic & Rosmary -Have tried this and was not impressed

WW preprepared Marinated Lamb Shanks -Mum always gave the shanks to the farm dogs

WW Lamb Leg Steak - Would be tough cooked on BBQ

WW Lamb Offcuts - dog meat

That was the only Lamb available. Hasn't been anything decent for weeks.

After all, we all have to suffer in the name of the Pandemic.

-- Edited by msg on Sunday 23rd of January 2022 05:07:03 PM

-- Edited by msg on Sunday 23rd of January 2022 05:08:59 PM

peter67 · Guru

And the answer is? maccas chicken nuggets with sweet and sour dip!! I wonder who tested those and what the results were?

Buzz Lightbulb · Guru

peter67 wrote:
And the answer is? maccas chicken nuggets with sweet and sour dip!! I wonder who tested those and what the results were?

Cat?

Are We Lost · Guru

From that original link.

"They also seized 20,000 tons of rat meat."

That's an awful lot of rats.

My thoughts? evileye

-- Edited by Are We Lost on Monday 24th of January 2022 11:30:32 AM

dorian · Guru

I didn't see any mention of MSG.

I, too, prefer to see corroborative references. Here is one:

China arrests after rat, mink and fox sold as mutton:

https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-asia-22394984

As for industrial salt, salt is salt, isn't it? I can't see anything in the product safety sheet that would worry me, and I certainly can't see how it could cause "health issues".

https://www.cargill.com/doc/1432158384878/industrial-mill-product-sheet.pdf

Industrial Mill Salt (99.83% NaCl)

"This material is a fine screened, white crystalline sodium chloride produced by the solar evaporation of brine. The salt crystals are refined by washing with clean saturated brine to remove surface impurities, drained of excess moisture, dried, and screened to size. This material contains no anticaking or free-flowing additives or conditioners."

"This material is intended for a variety of industrial applications. including manufacturing detergents, textile dyeing, resin products and other chemical processes."

-- Edited by dorian on Monday 24th of January 2022 01:30:39 PM

Cupie · Guru

We avoid any food made in China.

This is quite hard as we live in an area with a large Chinese population & the local supermarkets like Woolworths & IGA cater heavily for them with aisles of tempting & cheaply priced Chinese product including tinned, frozen & dried.

We witnessed some astoundingly poor hygiene standards in a brief tour of China some years ago and their wine is undrinkable. Fortunately Au wine was readily available at a reasonable price. Perhaps not now. To make it worse their local beer was usually served in dirty/flat glasses at almost room temperature.

Included on our 'avoid' list is anything processed in NZ from any % of imported product as well as any meat product. Our trade officials have let us down badly in the bilateral agreements with NZ on food standards.

I won't buy Au product that has been processed in Asia. Check it out. There is a lot of it including most of our frozen seafood.

Are We Lost · Guru

How many rats would it take to produce 20,000 tons of rat meat? Far too many for it to be feasible.

I would regard that BBC article as extreme sensationalism. Here is a Reuters article on the same thing

Reuters: 2013 meat scandal - 904 arrested

"During the crackdown, police discovered one suspect surnamed Wei who had used additives to spice up and sell rat, fox and mink meat at markets in Shanghai and Jiangsu province."

and

"Police confiscated more than 20,000 metric tons (22.046 tons) of fake or inferior meat products"

That I can believe. And knowing the corruption in China, can well imagine that a sizeable portion of that confiscated was in fact prime meat that was then onsold under the table.

While the reference to rat meat was probably only a tiny portion of 20,000 tons, the fact of additives and substitution does highlight how some producers will do anything to make money with no consideration to consumers. But I still believe that brand name products are safe because they have a reputation to stand by.

dorian · Guru

Chinese wine does not only have grapes in it. There might also be sugar, water, artificial flavor, dyes, and more. Some consumers got heart attacks, sudden migraines, and a higher risk of cancer after they drank wine that was Made in China.

Here is a list of permitted additives in the manufacture of wine:

https://www.wineaustralia.com/labelling/additives-and-processing-aids

Sugar and water are permitted, contrary to the above article.

Buzz Lightbulb · Guru

Here's more to think about when buying Australian meat:

https://newsapp.abc.net.au/newsapp/100997044

Apparently JBS owns a lot of Australia's meat supply market and it was built on corruption. There's a 4 corners show about it on the ABC. Makes me wonder where can I buy food that is somehow ethical or healthy.

msg · Guru

No where.

rgren2 · Guru

Buzz Lightbulb wrote:
Here's more to think about when buying Australian meat:

https://newsapp.abc.net.au/newsapp/100997044

Apparently JBS owns a lot of Australia's meat supply market and it was built on corruption. There's a 4 corners show about it on the ABC. Makes me wonder where can I buy food that is somehow ethical or healthy.

Try these.

https://www.ourcow.com.au/

Buzz Lightbulb · Guru

rgren2 wrote:
Buzz Lightbulb wrote:
Here's more to think about when buying Australian meat:

https://newsapp.abc.net.au/newsapp/100997044

Apparently JBS owns a lot of Australia's meat supply market and it was built on corruption. There's a 4 corners show about it on the ABC. Makes me wonder where can I buy food that is somehow ethical or healthy.
Try these.

https://www.ourcow.com.au/

That's for that link. It seemed like a good option until I saw the delivery price. We don't eat that much meat.

I'll ask at the different local butchers to see where they source their meat. I may get lucky.

Buzz Lightbulb · Guru

Even more atrocities from JBS. This time it's about OH&S issues:

Australia's biggest meat company JBS is repeatedly failing to protect its workers from horrific injuries

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-04-26/jbs-meat-company-worker-safety-four-corners/101012734