Chicken Processed in China

[saptech]

What will be next, our whole food supply will be imported from China? Is this greed or what?

Don't Trust a Chicken Nugget That's Visited China - Yahoo! Finance

the chickens will be slaughtered in the U.S. (or another nation that's allowed to export slaughtered chicken to the U.S.), then shipped to China for processing and re-export. That's the good news. The bad news is that, according to the New York Times, no USDA inspectors will be present in the Chinese processing plants (despite the fact that China has never before been allowed to export chicken to the U.S.).

 

[SammanthaX345]

Don't get me wrong but this is just wrong. This is making me remember why I don't eat fast food unless there is no other option.

 

[saptech]

I don't know why would you want to send it that far away to be processed anyway? Just to save some bucks!

I guess this country is becoming too selfish & greedy...

 

[Gmash]

I was just reading about this earlier. Love how they sneak stuff like this through when nobody's paying attention. Who could trust Chinese food safety standards? How old will these things be by the time people eat them? Slaughtered in America, shipped to China to be nuggetized, then shipped back to the U.S..Why? Worst part is that there's no disclosure, so you'll never know where in the hell they came from. Ridiculous.

 

[mikedt]

I was just reading about this earlier. Love how they sneak stuff like this through when nobody's paying attention. Who could trust Chinese food safety standards?

Me. :thumbup:

TBH I'd be more concerned about European food safety standards....I was.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horse_meat_scandal

Might be surprised by just how much stuff you eat, and toiletries as well, does come from China these days, especially for the US market. things like cookies, candy bars, toothpaste, soap, shampoo, deodorant.

 

[Gmash]

Not directly related to chicken nuggets, but doesn't make me feel any better about our food being sent to China for processing...

http://www.cnn.com/2013/09/05/world/asia/china-river-dead-fish/index.html

 

[mikedt]

Not directly related to chicken nuggets, but doesn't make me feel any better about our food being sent to China for processing...

Tons of poisoned fish clog river in China's Hubei province - CNN.com

Actually I know about industrial ammonia leaks first hand. It's nasty stuff.

About ten years ago I was doing security at a meat products factory that had an ammonia filled refrigeration system. One night the foreman came running into the security office shouting we got an ammonia leak, sound the evacuation alarm and dial 999. Eight fire appliances attended along with a chemical clean-up unit. Police went around the neighbourhood ordering everyone to stay indoors and close windows. In the end I think it was ten people needing hospital treatment, and the factory closed while Health & Safety Executive investigated the cause. This was in the UK. A year later they closed the factory and moved production to Poland. No more dangers of ammonia leaks, but about 200 people out of work.

But I certainly do think it's very wrong with this Chinese chicken processing. So the chickens are from the US, coming to China to be made into nuggets, and then going all the way back to the US. That's like what the hell! Just corporate greed isn't it? - make a few more $$$ for the shareholders. Never mind any possible risks of processing in China. How fresh is chicken going to be after travelling like all the way round the world? - presumably it's chilled or frozen. Of course you need ammonia or some other refrigerant to do that.

BTW food and meat production in China is largely localised. Many things I eat in Xilinhot, are actually produced in Xilinhot, or fairly locally in Inner Mongolia. It's only really non-perishables, like canned stuff, that is transported from the other end of the country AFAIK. We don't usually get oranges in Inner Mongolia, or if we do they're quite expensive. There isn't really a national chilled & frozen foods distribution network in China, like in the US or EU. It's not like the EU where many perishable food products are transported long distances by truck, usually from countries like Poland or Romania all the way to the UK. Think that's one reason why the 2013 horse meat scandal happened.

 

[Gmash]

With all that shipping, I'm not seeing where the savings are coming from without cutting corners somewhere. Maybe I'm missing something.

 

[mikedt]

Think I was missing something as well, if they really wanted to save money and cut corners, why don't they use Chinese chickens? Save half the shipping. But then there's something in the story about the US is only allowed to import slaughtered chickens from certain countries, and China is not one of them. But apparently it's OK for China to process them. Also any industrial accidents involving ammonia or whatever, and other pollution happens in China and not the US. Plus there's all the pollution caused by transporting the chickens across the Pacific twice.

IMO best thing people can do here is give this as much publicity as possible, and boycott whatever company is doing it, by not buying their products, writing to their congressman, etc.

 

[wyndslash]

And to think I like chicken nuggets ;_,

 

[Gmash]

Think I was missing something as well, if they really wanted to save money and cut corners, why don't they use Chinese chickens? Save half the shipping. But then there's something in the story about the US is only allowed to import slaughtered chickens from certain countries, and China is not one of them. But apparently it's OK for China to process them. Also any industrial accidents involving ammonia or whatever, and other pollution happens in China and not the US. Plus there's all the pollution caused by transporting the chickens across the Pacific twice.

IMO best thing people can do here is give this as much publicity as possible, and boycott whatever company is doing it, by not buying their products, writing to their congressman, etc.

That's actually my biggest problem with it, there's no disclosure requirement, so no way to know which companies to avoid.

Even worse, because the birds will be processed, the USDA
will not require point-of-origin labeling (under USDA rules, foods that have
been cooked aren't subject to point-of-origin labeling). In other words:
Consumers will have no way to tell if those chicken nuggets in the
supermarket freezer were processed in the U.S. or in China.