Just plain BAD food

Exactly why I make sure any edible product I buy is NOT from China.  This is only one example of many things like this that are done there. 

Veterinarians play a key role in food safety in this country by not only helping farmers with herd or flock health issues, but also by adhering to strict guidelines on what drugs can and can't be used in food animals. There are withdrawal times for some drugs, meaning there is a period of time AFTER you use the drug that you cannot sell it for meat or use it's milk. This time allows it be cleared from an animal's system.

Unfortunately, many farmers can get their hands on drugs and do a lot of their own "doctoring" but this type of contamination is not a common problem here in the US. The USDA employs veterinarians as food inspectors in slaughterhouses and meat-packing plants. Unfortunately, they are understaffed.  

Skinny pigs, poison pork: China battles farm drugs

It has shown up frequently in pork but also in snake dishes in south China and beef from the far western Xinjiang region, sending diners to the hospital with stomach aches and heart palpitations.

By ALEXA OLESEN

Associated Press Writer

BEIJING —

It has shown up frequently in pork but also in snake dishes in south China and beef from the far western Xinjiang region, sending diners to the hospital with stomach aches and heart palpitations.

Clenbuterol, known in China simply as "lean meat powder," is a dangerous drug that's banned in China yet stubbornly continues to pop up in the food supply, laced into animal feed by farmers impatient to get their meat to market and turn a profit.

The drug accelerates fat burning and muscle growth, making it an attractive feed additive, sports performance enhancer and slimming drug, but overdoses can cause illness and, in rare cases, death. Tour de France champion Alberto Contador is among the athletes, who have tested positive for the drug, though he disputes the results, claiming he unknowingly ingested the drug by eating tainted filet mignon.

How much of China's meat supply is tainted with clenbuterol is not clear. The government won't say how many cases of contaminated meat or related illness occur every year. But industry watchers say that, in the countryside at least, use of the drug is rampant.

In a country with an appetite-killing roster of food safety issues - from deadly infant formula to honey laced with dangerous antimicrobials and eggs dyed with cancer-causing pigments - the problem of clenbuterol-tainted pork is widely considered to be one of China's biggest food threats.

"It's really a big problem in China," said Pan Chenjun, a senior industry analyst with Rabobank in Beijing who focuses on the business of food in China. "It's not reported frequently so people sometimes think it's not a big issue but actually it's quite widespread."

Pan said improved food inspection in big cities like Beijing and Shanghai have made mass poisonings in urban areas unusual, and therefore newsworthy, but the problem is rampant in smaller cities and rural areas.

"I think a lot of people living in counties or towns may have a lot of exposure (to clenbuterol) if they eat street food," Pan said.

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