The food we eat

Recently there has been a scare about the quality of food products exported from China. The U.S. and the E.U have claimed that fish and other foods have been contaminated. One should not exaggerate. I have been living in China for almost 20 years and only suffered a few times from diarrhea and never got food poisoning. So it can't be that bad. One has the impression that food quality standards are more and more used as a protectionist tool. China can of course also use it, claiming that Perrier mineral water contains too much bacteria.

A fundamental problem is that different countries use different standards. What is classified as a poisonous ingredient in one country is perfectly legal and acceptable in another. With increasing trade and globalization, there is a need for a unified standard of what is poisonous and what is not. To point the finger at China won't help. Still remember the dioxine-tainted chickens in Belgium, which led to the electoral defeat of the outgoing government of Jean-Luc Dehaene?

In China there are indeed unscrupulous food producers who mix dirty stuff because it's cheaper and they can earn a higher profit. The culprit is once again the greedy pursuit of profit. Since China doesn't seem ready to eradicate this evil, the only way to prevent serious repercussions on its international trade is to increase inspections of food (and other products) destined for export. China is doing just that. Scare-mongering by certain elements in the U.S. who have ulterior motives won't help.