# Do you avoid food imported from China? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 11, 2016, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-avoid-food-imported-from-china/751883 "2016-04-11T13:49:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![MLS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/919ad9/32.png) [@MLS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MLS)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2016, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-avoid-food-imported-from-china/751883/21 "2016-04-11T17:18:43Z")
I avoid anything made in China if possible (which it often isn’t). I absolutely will not knowingly buy food from China. ---
**Author:** ![Claverhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/13edae/32.png) [@Claverhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Claverhouse)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2016, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-avoid-food-imported-from-china/751883/22 "2016-04-11T18:14:50Z")
Any avoidance comes from uninterest in asiatic cuisine, but as a vegan I adore such things as tins of gluten mock duck and other non-rice things — I am far more likely to avoid American imports since they seem to have an awful lot of additives thrown in almost at random, and I have no intention of consuming GMOs; which distaste also is something we euros have in common with the Chinese. The trouble with honey is that they treat their bees like workers. ---
**Author:** ![drewder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/57b2e6/32.png) [@drewder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewder)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2016, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-avoid-food-imported-from-china/751883/23 "2016-04-11T18:21:47Z")
> [@Hari\_Seldon](#): > > Most of the garlic sold in our markets is imported from China. I am not worried about health aspects, but locally grown garlic simply tastes much better. I don’t know if that is the variety or the processing and don’t much care. Processing? What processing is done to garlic? ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2016, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-avoid-food-imported-from-china/751883/24 "2016-04-11T18:51:56Z")
> [@Machine\_Elf](#): > > 😕 Who said anything about politics? My avoidance of made-in-China comestibles has nothing to do with their annexation of Tibet, or their brutal suppression of the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989, or any of that sort of thing. My concern is entirely with the (perceived) unacceptably high risk of such foods being contaminated/adulterated with hazardous chemicals and/or disease organisms. > > IOW, it’s about self-preservation, not politics. China and the USA are political entities. Food production in both countries is regulated by people answerable to their political governments. American producers label products with the bare minimum required by law, which is imposed through a political process. Almost every country in the world, even Mexico, has more stringent and restrictive laws about how food must be described on labels. If anything, I would avoid American food, because of the determination by which food marketers use deceptive packaging and labeling that they can get away with under relatively lax American regulation. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Devil\_s\_Grandmother](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/74df32/32.png) [@The\_Devil\_s\_Grandmother](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Devil_s_Grandmother)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2016, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-avoid-food-imported-from-china/751883/25 "2016-04-11T18:53:16Z")
> [@drewder](#): > > Processing? What processing is done to garlic? Fresh garlic is a wet mess. It’s dried (or cured) before transport and sale. I would assume it is also fumigated to keep bugs away, but I don’t really know what large producers do. ---
**Author:** ![Fool\_in\_the\_Rain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8491ac/32.png) [@Fool\_in\_the\_Rain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fool_in_the_Rain)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2016, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-avoid-food-imported-from-china/751883/26 "2016-04-11T18:59:54Z")
I make every attempt to avoid anything edible from China, be it for us humans or the pets of the house. Just can’t trust their safety processes. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2016, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-avoid-food-imported-from-china/751883/27 "2016-04-11T19:07:24Z")
> [@Fool\_in\_the\_Rain](#): > > I make every attempt to avoid anything edible from China, be it for us humans or the pets of the house. Just can’t trust their safety processes. ^^This. It doesn’t matter how many businessmen they shoot - the conditions in China just scream for fraud and corruption. I have enough trouble steering clear of _American_ crooks. I don’t need to add a whole 'nother country’s. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2016, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-avoid-food-imported-from-china/751883/28 "2016-04-11T19:13:20Z")
Yes, I do generally stay away from any foodstuff made in China, be it for my dog or myself. Seafood I’m especially wary of. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2016, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-avoid-food-imported-from-china/751883/29 "2016-04-11T19:23:56Z")
China’s institutions for consumer protection seem to be comparable to the American of the late 1800’s / early 1900’s. We all need to read (or re-read) _The Jungle_ by Upton Sinclair. Canned food, a new technology of that era, was commonly packed in formaldehyde. This was a new thing for soldiers, who were sent off to war with rations of canned food. They called it “embalmed beef”. I’ve heard it argued that, during the Spanish-American war, more American soldiers were killed by the bad food than by bullets. More recently, we’ve seen a whole panoply of toxic products from China: Toxic dog-food; toxic toothpaste; even rubber tires that disintegrate at highway speeds. When I get new tires for my car, I insist on getting American-made (or at least, non-Chinese-made). In at least one case, the tire dealer had to go hunting around town for other dealers that had American tires. The city of Gilroy, Ca., has been known for years as “the garlic capital of the United States”. There were (and still are) garlic packing and processing plants there, and miles of garlic fields all around. From what I’ve heard, pretty much all of the garlic is imported from China these days, but at least some of the packing and processing is still done in Gilroy. ---
**Author:** ![peedin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peedin/32/14095_2.png) [@peedin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/peedin)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2016, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-avoid-food-imported-from-china/751883/30 "2016-04-11T19:24:17Z")
I will not buy any food made or processed in China. Period. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2016, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-avoid-food-imported-from-china/751883/31 "2016-04-11T19:32:41Z")
And another scary product: The Bay Bridge (connecting Oakland, Ca. to San Francisco) was badly damaged in the Loma Prieta earthquake (1989), and was fairly recently re-built. At the beginning of the re-building process, they solicited bids for various parts of the work. I know nothing of the bidding and selection process – but they ended up buying steel for the girders from China. That scared me. More recently, now that the bridge is re-built and opened, we keep reading about problems that are turning up. Example: [The Mystery of the Brand-New Bay Bridge’s Corroded Steel](http://www.wired.com/2015/06/mystery-brand-new-bay-bridges-corroded-steel/), Nick Stockton, _Wired_, 06/10/2015. > [@](#): > > _Plink_ goes the pendulum arm as it smashes into a 3-inch section of steel. The sound is high-pitched, which tells any metallurgist with a good ear that the piece is brittle. The arm is the business end of a Charpy impact tester—it swings into a thing and, on impact, measures how much energy it took to break that thing. In this case, the thing is steel from a new bridge connecting two cities in one of the most seismically active places on the planet. And the steel broke. The flat, glittery inner surfaces show that in its short time holding together the new Bay Bridge, the steel corroded. > > This relatively low-tech method is among a battery of tests that materials scientists are using to determine why several anchor rods securing the newest portion of the San Francisco Bay Bridge, the region’s busiest, failed their earthquake inspections. The first alarms sounded in 2013, when seismic tests found 32 faulty rods. ---
**Author:** ![drewder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/57b2e6/32.png) [@drewder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewder)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2016, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-avoid-food-imported-from-china/751883/32 "2016-04-11T19:39:25Z")
> [@peedin](#): > > I will not buy any food made or processed in China. Period. Not even Chinese food? ---
**Author:** ![Claverhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/13edae/32.png) [@Claverhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Claverhouse)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2016, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-avoid-food-imported-from-china/751883/33 "2016-04-11T20:06:51Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Yes, I do generally stay away from any foodstuff made in China, be it for my dog or myself. Seafood I’m especially wary of. Conversely, the Chinese are wary of American seafood because of poor American regulations and handling: in 2013 they banned Geoduck, a delicacy Americans are fond of as an **aphrodisiac** , and other shelled animals, because of [**Paralytic Shellfish Poisoning**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paralytic_shellfish_poisoning), which can be fatal to humans. > [@Senegoid](#): > > And another scary product: > > The Bay Bridge (connecting Oakland, Ca. to San Francisco) was badly damaged in the Loma Prieta earthquake (1989), and was fairly recently re-built. > > At the beginning of the re-building process, they solicited bids for various parts of the work. I know nothing of the bidding and selection process – but they ended up buying steel for the girders from China. > > That scared me. > > More recently, now that the bridge is re-built and opened, we keep reading about problems that are turning up. Example: [The Mystery of the Brand-New Bay Bridge’s Corroded Steel](http://www.wired.com/2015/06/mystery-brand-new-bay-bridges-corroded-steel/), Nick Stockton, _Wired_, 06/10/2015. Meh, over the last week [**19 schools**](http://www.theguardian.com/education/2016/apr/11/serious-defects-two-more-edinburgh-schools-built-using-pfi) over Edinburgh have been closed due to building practices, with more to come. Built under _Private Finance Initiative_, a neoliberal practice. Modern building is as prone to collapse as back in Ancient Rome or the Middle Ages; just ugly to boot. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2016, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-avoid-food-imported-from-china/751883/34 "2016-04-11T20:14:22Z")
> [@Claverhouse](#): > > Conversely, the Chinese are wary of American seafood because of poor American regulations and handling: in 2013 _they banned Geoduck, a delicacy Americans are fond of as an **aphrodisiac** _, and other shelled animals, because of [**Paralytic Shellfish Poisoning**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paralytic_shellfish_poisoning), which can be fatal to humans. [The ‘phallic’ clam America sells to China](http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-33261666) > [@](#): > > So delicious in fact that diners at high-end seafood restaurants in China will pay up to $300 (£200) for a fresh geoduck imported live from Canada or the US. > > Its delicate texture and exotic looks are prized by connoisseurs - who consider the “elephant trunk clam”, as it is known in China, to be an aphrodisiac. [For New Year, Chinese Shell Out Big For Tribes’ Supersize Clams](http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748704254304576116470583905438) > [@](#): > > The 700-member tribe on Washington’s Kitsap Peninsula is blessed with one of the world’s largest colonies of geoducks—nature’s largest clam and a prized delicacy in Asian cuisine. ETA:[China Ends Ban on U.S. Geoducks, Other Shellfish](http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702303749904579580742559429208) ---
**Author:** ![control-z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2016, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-avoid-food-imported-from-china/751883/35 "2016-04-11T20:24:47Z")
> [@TimeWinder](#): > > I read somewhere a few years back (sorry, no cite), that in some field or other, 70 percent of the quality complaints and recalls concerned Chinese products. The kicker was that 70 percent of _all_ the products in that field were Chinese – in other words, the “Chinese products are unsafe and inferior” meme turned out to just be good old fashioned confirmation bias. If 70% of quality complaints and recalls are Chinese products and 70% of products are Chinese, doesn’t it follow that 100% of Chinese products are bad? Sorry I only took one semester of statistics. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![doorhinge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a5b964/32.png) [@doorhinge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doorhinge)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2016, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-avoid-food-imported-from-china/751883/36 "2016-04-11T20:49:40Z")
I’m not interested in buying, or eating, any food products made in China. Nor would I feed made in China pet food to my animals. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2016, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-avoid-food-imported-from-china/751883/37 "2016-04-11T23:01:06Z")
We go to the Asian supermarket all the time. Presumably we buy all sorts of stuff that’s made in China. I’ve stayed away from buying White Rabbit candies, though. ---
**Author:** ![andrewm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c57346/32.png) [@andrewm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andrewm)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2016, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-avoid-food-imported-from-china/751883/38 "2016-04-11T23:01:22Z")
> [@control-z](#): > > If 70% of quality complaints and recalls are Chinese products and 70% of products are Chinese, doesn’t it follow that 100% of Chinese products are bad? > > Sorry I only took one semester of statistics. 😃 No. The fact that the two proportions are the same size does not mean that they overlap exactly. It could be the case that 30% of products are recalled and of non-Chinese origin and 40% of products are recalled and of Chinese origin. Or it could be the case that 0% of products are recalled and of non-Chinese origin and 70% of products are recalled and of Chinese origin (probably unlikely). Or the breakdown could be anywhere in between. ---
**Author:** ![Helena330](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/helena330/32/531_2.png) [@Helena330](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Helena330)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2016, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-avoid-food-imported-from-china/751883/39 "2016-04-12T02:10:27Z")
I avoid anything from China. A lot of canned fruit is from there so be sure to check the label. [Poisonous Chinese Drywall in US Homes](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_drywall) ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2016, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-avoid-food-imported-from-china/751883/40 "2016-04-12T03:28:02Z")
> [@The\_Devil\_s\_Grandmother](#): > > Fresh garlic is a wet mess. It’s dried (or cured) before transport and sale. I would assume it is also fumigated to keep bugs away, but I don’t really know what large producers do. No it’s not. At least, the stuff i grow isn’t. I do dry it, but that’s just so it will keep better. Anyway, garlic pretty much is what it is, I’m not worried about Chinese garlic. It’s more hidden adulteration and additives that worry me. And their honey is basically fake. But there’s lots of good stuff manufactured in China. Their steel is fine. Their electronics are top notch. Pretty much all the world’s fabric is made in China. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-avoid-food-imported-from-china/751883.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-avoid-food-imported-from-china/751883.md?page=3)