http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2007-05-20-menufoods_N.htm?csp=34

Too late, the damage is done!

Wonder who's next in line as our primary ingredient import source?

Over the past five years, the AP found, U.S. food makers prospecting for bargains more than doubled their business with low-cost countries such as Mexico, China and India. Those nations also have the most shipments fail the limited number of checks the FDA makes.

But China is a primary source for some B vitamins and amino acids, including taurine used in cat foods. Finding them elsewhere will be hard, says Greg Aldrich, nutritionist with Pet Food & Ingredient Technology.
And ascorbic acid as well as many other "natural" herbs, vitamins and other supplements for humans. We can't just throw the switch on this one.

On this same topic...

Global fears
Nation risks losing $30B a year in food and drug exports
Tainted in China?
By David Barboza
The New York TimesArticle Last Updated: 05/20/2007 11:25:51 PM MDT
(Eugene Hoshiko/The Associated Press)«1»SHANGHAI, China

Weeks after tainted Chinese pet food ingredients killed or sickened thousands of dogs and cats in the United States, China is facing growing international pressure to prove that its food exports are safe to eat.
But simmering beneath the surface is a thornier problem that worries Chinese officials. How do they assure the world that this is not a nation of counterfeits and that ''Made in China'' means well-made? The future of the country's burgeoning export business could well hang in the balance.
Already, one of the largest pet food recalls in American history has heightened global fears about the quality and safety of China's agricultural products. And evidence has shown that China exported fake drug ingredients that could undermine the credibility of another booming export.
''This isn't an international crisis yet, but if they don't do something about it quickly, it will be,'' says David Zweig, a China specialist who teaches at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. ''The question is whether it spills over and 'Made in China' becomes known as 'Buyer Beware.' ''
With contamination spreading to meat and fish supplies, some of America's biggest food companies, such as Kraft Foods, are lobbying the U.S. government to pressure China to improve its food safety measures.
Kraft, the Kellogg Co. and other food companies have said they are
reviewing their own food safety procedures and upgrading equipment. Their executives worry that another scare involving China could set off a consumer backlash against Chinese or other foreign imports and reverse a trend that has seen large food makers grow increasingly dependent on processed ingredients from developing countries.
Experts also say doubts about the quality of China's food shipments and worries about its fake drugs could affect other exports if buyers begin to find safety problems or other product faults.
The frequency of recalls of Chinese imports has risen in recent years, according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission. For instance, two weeks ago, Wal-Mart Stores announced a nationwide recall of baby bibs made in China after some tested positive for high levels of lead.
Last week, the Cardinal Distributing Co. recalled 300,000 children's rings with dice or horseshoes, and Spandrel Sales and Marketing recalled about 200,000 necklaces, bracelets and rings. In both cases, the jewelry, which was made in China and sold in American vending machines, had high levels of lead.
Many consumers also have told pet food makers that they want goods that are free of any ingredients from China, according to the Pet Food Institute.
At stake for China is more than $30 billion a year in agricultural and drug exports to Asia, Europe and North America, which has been a key segment of the booming Chinese economy and its fledgling stock market. The current scare may prompt needed changes in China. The former head of its food and drug safety watchdog is standing trial in Beijing for accepting bribes and failing to curb the growing market in fake and dangerous medicines.
China is negotiating with the United States and the European Union to accept imports of Chinese poultry products. That move is opposed by American and European poultry farmers, who are using the pet food scandal to press their case.
Certain industries will face greater challenges, starting with feed processing, where two Chinese companies were found to have intentionally mixed an industrial chemical called melamine with wheat flour to boost protein readings artificially. Pharmaceuticals need to overcome even higher hurdles, particularly since last year when 100 people died in Panama after ingesting fake ingredients used in cough syrup.
''We're now learning some of the dirty secrets behind this fast-growing economy,'' said Wang Fei-ling, a professor of international affairs at the Georgia Institute of Technology. ''They're cutting corners in making things.''
In some places around the world, reaction has been swift. In Europe, food safety authorities are testing all Chinese protein imports for melamine. In South Korea, the CJ Corp., one of the country's largest food and feed makers, said last week that it was recalling 42 tons of wheat gluten from China, even though the products had not tested positive for melamine.
Some Chinese exports are feeling the pinch.
''A Spanish company came to visit us and was planning to buy our product,'' said Sun Hong, chief executive of Sanfu Biochemical Co., a rice protein maker in Hangzhou. ''We were going to strike a deal at the end of the month. But after what happened in the U.S., they haven't even replied to our e-mail.''
Experts say that to restore confidence in the country's products and its currency, China needs to confront the issue and not be seen as covering up or delaying the release of information, which seemed to be the case during recent outbreaks of severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, and bird flu. In similar fashion, after the initial news about melamine came out, China denied having shipped any wheat gluten to the United States, and one official said melamine could not have harmed pets.
Only after an international storm surrounded the case in mid-April, and Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., publicly rebuked China for its response to the investigation, did China fully cooperate with American regulators. U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Mike Johanns, while saying that it is safe to eat pork and chicken from animals whose feed was mixed with the contaminated pet food, also has pushed for more openness.
The problems in China are compounded by strict controls over the media that keep the public in the dark about the nation's food and drug safety infringements, experts say. Most Chinese are still unaware of the pet food scandal in the United States because the story has largely been ignored by the Chinese media.
Several Chinese editors contacted in recent weeks said they were ordered by the government propaganda department not to report on the case.

So much to do to improve their image before the Beijing Olympics -- so little time....

The Snack Bar Committee should have a fulltime moral coach.