EU bans food imports from China

EU bans food imports from China

ukpress.google.com

A Europe-wide ban on all food for children coming from China has come into force.

The European Commission's ban comes amid growing concern over contaminated milk powder which has already caused infant deaths in China and affected thousands more children.

A Commission spokeswoman said some EU countries - and some sectors of the food industry - had already announced their own bans, but now Brussels was activating an explicit total ban on all products from China aimed at infants and....children

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The control goes further than banning food products aimed at children and infants, it also increases testing on all food products imported from China that contain at least 15% milk. Other (non-milk) food stuffs will be tested randomly.

I have to ask, why do we have such stringent food production regulations in the E.U when we don't bother to test imports from non-E.U areas?

It's nice we're now beginning to test food products from China but what about the rest of the world? With all these "terrorists" in all these "non-democratic" nations; with all the security measures we've put in place at our borders, on our planes, in our streets; with our "security personnel" stationed in non-friendly nations (sorry, "areas"); shouldn't we be testing all imported food products from all areas of the globe just in case they're contaminated?

I think it's great that we're protecting ourselves from contaminated food from China. We have to ensure the foods we eat are safe. Only, why is it a big issue now? Didn't something similar happen a few months back re pet food? Try as far back as 2007 as well

Plus, why have we tied children, infants, contamination, food and China into one act? Surely adults need to be protected. Banning imports aimed at the young will not stop them from being fed possibly contaminated products by the older people around them.

Something doesn't taste right to me.

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I can almost hear the battle for the new financial system taking place. We know about Rockerfeller and that crowd but who occupies that sort of seat over there in Asia? China is going to be mad as we cut them off from them cutting us off. Too bad so much runs on oil.

I dont think this has any other motive other than to protect the interests of the EU members and its people. They did the same with beef when britain had an outbeak of BSE as it led to CJD in Humans. If policies like this werent put in place then the heatlh risks to the world would be phenomanal. I dont think people uderstand what goes into logistics and shipping. If that system fell down then there would be real problems in the world. Even animals need to be qurantined for 6 months. Plants any kind of organic matter have to clear port health before it can pass customs.

reply to post by MCoG1980


I worked in air cargo for 2 years or more (Europe), animals, even infectious ones, only need to be examined before entry is allowed. Vegetable matter goes straight out, comes straight in - no real checks. Same with fish - if living, gets checked by a vet, if dead then no checks. Most livestock has to be accompanied by a vet during transit (in case any need to be put down or tranquilized). My experience ended about a year ago.

Edited to add:

When cattle exports were banned from the U.K many politicians and people whom relied on revenue from those exports accused foreign governments of making decisions based on economics not safety. Personally, I thought the ban was justified, I just wish it was extended within the U.K too.

It's "surprising" how many politicians put business ahead of health. Same goes for many people who stand to lose money through decisions detrimental to them.

[edit on 30/9/08 by Rapacity]

My field also, but land and sea. You will understand then that the case with the OP is a neccessary procedure. Only suspicious thing i thought of though am sure would not be the case would the the poisoning of the milk itself as a method of controlling population.

reply to post by MCoG1980


I totally agree, the ban is necessary. I think it's overdue. I find it suspect that it's come so late. We knew about contamination of non-human food products; we knew about poor production controls of non-food products (plastic toys with special properties that drug users liked); we've known about the milk problem for several weeks; why wait so long to protect human health by banning Chinese milk imports intended for the young and testing Chinese non-milk imports randomly?

What about those imports of Chinese origin that miraculously change nationality when they come via nations other than China? We should be testing all food imports as vigorously as we do domestic products. Would create a lot of jobs...

If I managed a restaurant, had complaints from ill customers but carried on serving anyway then I'd not only be closed down, I'd be taken to court. I suspect my hypothetical restaurant would be closed down immediately the Health and Safety Exec, Food Standards Agency or Trading Standards discovered I'd been serving inedible food. Afterall, it's not a business decision but a public health one. Shouldn't the same decision readiness apply to all vendors even when that vendor is in another nation?

[edit on 30/9/08 by Rapacity]