China On Food Safety Scares: Who, Me?

Industrial chemicals in mislabeled food, feed and drug products caused toxic toothpaste and drug scares in Latin America, pet and animal food scares in the United States, and it all (or most of it) traced back to lax Chinese companies. China admitted yesterday, for the first time, that two companies had sold poorly labeled poison to a Spanish company, which re-labeled it and re-sold it to Panama, which put it in cough syrup and watched it killed 51 last year. But it also deflected blame -- as it has in the past -- to poor choices made by foreign companies, according to a story in the June 1 Los Angeles Times. It's not our fault the product was bad, China seemed to say. You bought it. And it's useful to remember here, that it isn't only China that has been using banned chemicals in food products. American proucers also used melamine -- an industrial chemical -- in animal feeds, it was revealed earlier this week.