Noon International: Food Trading Import Export

The tainted Chinese dumplings (from Tianyang Foods in Hebei province) imported by JT (Japan Tobacco) saga continues. Now more than 70 people have complained of symptoms from the metamidophos contaminated Gyoza dumplings.

China thus far still remains silent although I have read that two samples of the product were tested by Chinese authorities and found to be negative.

The recall has spread as Ajinomoto the largest food company in the World is taking proactive measures and recalling some Korean style products including fried rice that it sells in Japan from the same facility, Tianyang Foods.

Things of interest:

• I read in Chinareview that it was not clear if the Gyoza dumplings were contaminated in China or Japan? I myself find this hard to understand, if the product is produced in China, made in China and packaged in China then how could it be contaminated in Japan?
• I read in Japan News Review that in the U.S. if methamidophos is used commercially it must be labeled as Danger-Poison. Again I really don’t understand this because this particular pesticide is used for many vegetables including broccoli and cauliflower and has a tolerance of 1PPM (parts per million), which is established by the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency), yet I have never seen any product being sold in the supermarket as poisonous.
• China’s “Baidu” their equivalent of Google doesn’t come up with any results when you search for “Japan Tobacco food” or “JT food”, is this being controlled by the China government?

Technorati Tags: Noon International, gyoza, dumplings, poison, Japan Tobacco, Ajinomoto

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China is in hot water again.

JT Foods a subsidiary of Japan Tobacco has imported Frozen Gyoza (Pot Stickers) contaminated with an organophosphate insecticide methamidophos. As of today at least 10 people have been sickened with one 5 year child slipping into a coma.

The frozen Gyoza was produced by the Chinese manufacture Hebei Foodstuffs Import & Export Group Tianyang Food Processing. Thus far little information is coming out of Beijing in light of the recent 4 month food safety campaign that was proclaimed to be a total success.

JT Foods is in the process of recalling 13 tons of the contaminated dumplings voluntarily. In addition they will be recalling 22 other items also produced by the same manufacture.

Questions to ponder:

How could this happen if all the product is being inspected by the Chinese CIQ?
How could this pass through Japanese customs?
Will the Japanese government impose new controls on imported foodstuffs from China?
Will the Japanese consumers revolt and stop buying Chinese imported foodstuffs?
How will this incidence restore confidence in Chinese foodstuffs?

Company Profile Of Chinese Manufacture:

Company Name: QINHUANGDAO TIANYANG INDUSTRIAL COMPANY
Primary Business Type:Manufacture Trader
Number of Employees:162
Registered Catipal(RMB):3.14 million
Parent Company:HEBEI FOODSTUFFS IMPORT AND EXPORT (GROUP) CORP.

Company Introduction:
QINHUANGDAO TIANYANG INDUSTRIAL COMPANY is located in the center of Qinhuangdao Foreign Trade Zone, covering an area of 60054.14 square meters, with fixed assets of 42 million Yuan. It is a comprehensive import and export corporation integrating purchase, storage, food processing and trade, with independent imports and exports right. With Chinese chestnut product, canned food and quick frozen food as its main industry, the annual export revenue in foreign exchange reached 10 million dollars. In 2001, it passed ISO9001：2000 quality management system certification，HACCP management system is also in operation.

Other Resources

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/01/30/dumplings.japan.ap/
http://www.smartmoney.com/news/on/index.cfm?story=ON-20080130-000196-0424
http://www.wtopnews.com/?nid=106&sid=1335613

Technorati Tags: Noon International, pesticide, gyoza, japan tobacco

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China continues to suffer from the recent snowstorms as trains are not moving, transportation is in a state of disarray, airline flights are delayed or just canceled, and container ships delayed. To top it off this is the time of year you see masses of workers going back to their hometowns for Chinese New Year celebrations with their families. Now it appears that many workers will not be able to make the trek back to their hometowns.

Today the State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA) has issued an emergency alert to all the local food and drug bureaus to tighten inspection and be on the look out for both fake and inferior food. Local officials have free reign to prosecute any food violations of food safety, noting supplies of some foods were already tight because of transportation delays in getting product to the marketplace.

Technorati Tags: snowstorms, food safety

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Watch John Z. Blazevich CEO of Contessa Premium Foods being interviewed (see below) by Fox News Stuart Varney and Dagen McDowell on being the first Green Frozen facility in the World.

Stuart Varney tries to make a mockery of Blazevich and being green. Varney must be living in another planet being so ignorant about green and its potential benefits not only for us but for our children’s children.

Their is an old Indian saying that we should not be thinking of the consequences of today but look forward 7 generations.

Kudos to Contessa.

Technorati Tags: green, Contessa

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A major snowstorm that has blanketed much of China has caused major electricity outages, road closures, airline delays and transportation problems.

For us in the frozen food industry our concern is the current production of broccoli and cauliflower which might be subject to a freeze. Factories are sitting empty with nothing to produce because major highways are closed to many of the transportation vehicles preventing raw materials from reaching their destinations. Delayed shipments because of inability to get transportation to the major ports to load the containers.

The snowstorm has caused major outages but it is only part of the problem. The major problem is shortage of coal (energy) which has plagued China over the last several years. With the rising cost of energy Beijing has stepped in and imposed price controls which has only exacerbated the problem.

Railways in Guangzhou have been shut down because of power shortages with more than 150,000 people stranded. Beijing estimates it will be 5 days before the railways are back to normal.

All of this happening with Chinese New Year’s next week and thousand of migrant workers trying to get back to their home towns.

Technorati Tags: China, energy, food, broccoli, cauliflower

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The Chinese are very creative and now have a new propaganda campaign for clean pure and safe food using a Swedish model. Being from Sweden provokes ones imagination of clean pure fresh air. Wow, will the consumer buy it??

The poster reads as follows:

• For Clean Pure and Safe food ingredients:
• Clean non-contaminated land and water
• No rubbish on fields
• SEED MUST BE NON-GMO
• Only registered pesticides and fertilizers
• Apply pesticides safely
• Written records of chemical applications
• No raw animal or human manure in fields
• Harvest into clean, non-contaminated containers
• Transport in clean, un-contaminated wagons
• Crops identified at factory by ID of farmer who grew it

You can read the blog in its entirety (along with the pictures of the Swedish model) at Kurashi - News From Japan

Technorati Tags: Noon International, China, Food Safety, food

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Here is a new twist on kosher foods. China is trying to use “kosher” as a disguise for selling Chinese products with the implication that it equates to “safe”. An interesting concept and I wonder just how naive the customer is about “kosher” versus “safe”. (A furniture manufacture wants to be Kosherized? Kosher furniture is that marketable??) Read the article from The Consumerist here.

Technorati Tags: Noon International, safe, kosher

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This is an interesting article from the Herald Tribune which claims that the Fortune Cookie actually has its origins in Japan.  No wonder after all these years travelling to China I have yet to have a fortune cookie. 

Technorati Tags: Noon International, Japan, China, fortune cookies

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The China government has just instituted price controls on a group of agricultural products including, grain, edible oil, meat, milk, and eggs. Rising food cost has been one of the main contributors to inflation in China this last year.

“Major enterprises are required to submit the price-raising scheme to the government for official approval 10 working days before they intend to raise the prices” said the NDRC (National Development and Reform Commission) in a circular on interim price intervention.

The move is intended as a mechanism to fight inflation. It will be interesting to see how this plays out because in the past price controls have not been a very good mechanism for curtailing inflation.

Read the whole article.

Technorati Tags: Noon International, inflation

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Is your supplier ISO or HACCP compliant?  Have you seen the document?  But more importantly have you seen the facility?  As the above post as seen in a Tom Peters slide show illustrates, almost anyone can be certified but is this what is needed?

Certification is only that, certification.  Getting a quality product is entirely different. 

The same holds true for 3rd party audits of frozen factories.  Yes they show that certain written criteria have been met but it doesn’t translate into getting an “A” grade product.  Not at all.  I can follow all the procedures correctly but if I start with poor raw material all the procedures are not going to give me grade “A” material. 

In our many travels to China we have seen many a frozen vegetable factory that has an ISO or HACCP certificate that we would not consider importing from.  Yet today there are many of our customers that will buy from China without ever seeing the facility, and only trusting some certification.  This buying (cheap) mentality can only lead to problems down the road.  It is unfortunate because their lack of due diligence will end up giving the industry or country a bad name when the problem does surface. 

 Our best policy is to know our suppliers first hand, don’t be fooled by the certificate.

Technorati Tags: Noon International, ISO, HACCP, vegetable, certificate

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