Another good article on our food supply.

The San Jose Mercury News reports on the growing problem with what is becoming our practically unregulated food supply.
Some salient excerpts:

• (Those) familiar with the Chinese economy describe it as vast, loosely regulated and often corrupt.

• The U.S. Department of Agriculture visits other countries to certify that meat-packing plants and local inspectors are operating under acceptable standards, before allowing those products into this country. But the FDA doesn't have the budget or legal authority to do the same for most other types of food.

• (A) consultant, thinks the United States should require domestic manufacturers to keep records detailing where their ingredients come from, as the European Union does. The rules are intended to rein in unscrupulous distributors who might otherwise try to hide the source of suspect goods.

• The United States relies too heavily on the food industry to police itself, agreed Caroline Smith DeWaal, food safety director for the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a non-profit research and advocacy group in Washington, D.C.

Where does your food come from?
Food labels don't tell the whole inside story
By Brandon Bailey
Mercury News
Article Launched: 07/22/2007 01:44:16 AM PDT

That loaf of Sara Lee bread on the grocery shelf in San Jose was made with flour from U.S. wheat. But the Illinois-based food giant uses honey and vitamin supplements from China.

While Paul Newman's daughter uses California figs in cookies made by her Aptos organic food company, she turns to Mexico and Austria for other ingredients.

And even though a Procter & Gamble spokeswoman described Crest toothpaste "as a truly American product," it uses additives from China and Finland.

Recent reports of tainted imports from China have focused new attention on a little-known trend: In today's global economy, more food items are being produced in this country with some ingredients from other lands. But the FDA inspects less than 1 percent of all food imports - and that means consumers must trust food makers to guarantee the safety of their products.

"It's not just the stuff that says `Made in China.' It's the stuff in the stuff that says `Made in the USA,' " said Elisa Odabashian of Consumers Union, a non-profit consumer advocacy group that publishes Consumer Reports magazine. "We're importing more and more of our food and we're inspecting almost none of it."

(cont.)