Food Quality & Safety in China
Food quality in China is a big issue. The fairly recent scandal that broke out over poisonous pet food being exported to America is not an isolated case, at least not within the borders of China. If you are living in China, you must be careful about the food.
A Huge Problem in China: Fake Food
While I sympathize with those who were unfortunate enough to see their beloved pets pass away due to poisoned food from China, Americans and much of the world are better off than the approximately 1.3 billion consumers in China.
Living in China, I have learned that anything can be faked here. In terms of food, that includes even the cheapest of things like eggs. Who would make fake eggs? Real ones are not that expensive to ‘make’ in the first place.
Of course the saddest instances of fake food in China has been the fake baby formula scandals. China has already taken steps to resolve this issue, but I still would be very hesitant to buy most baby formulas in China. If you want to know more, check out this translation from last year.
Also there is this from an article in this week’s Economist:
As Mr Zheng’s case—which did not involve exports—showed, this is not purely a problem for foreigners who buy Chinese products. It is a safe to say that many more Chinese people than foreigners are harmed by ingesting toxic or substandard foods and drugs each year. In one particularly tragic case in Anhui in 2004, for example, several babies died of malnutrition after consuming fake baby-milk powder. Investigative programmes exposing factories, farms and restaurants engaged in various nefarious practices with food are a stomach-churning staple of Chinese television.
How to Protect Yourself from Bad Food in China
So what can you do to make sure you avoid the worst of the fake food problems the world over, whether you are living overseas (in the States), an expat in China, or a Chinese person?
The solution, really, is simple. Stick with big brands that you can trust. While it is possible that there will be some bad food that slips through their internal and supplier quality control systems, the larger brands have much more incentive to provide what they say they are providing. And since they sell food on such a massive scale, problems will quickly come to light.
Food problems from smaller companies are much more likely to either never be discovered or found out too late.
When it comes to something as important as the substances we depend on for survival, don’t be cheap.
Extra Advice for Expats in China
While it is all good and fine to emphasize buying trusted brands (and in China, make sure to check the packaging – even trusted brands are faked) for your own cooking, it is hard to avoid counterfeit food entirely when living here.
I understand your pain. It scares me to think of the quality of food that goes into corner dives or even some nicer restaurant. But this is just one of the (many) dangers of living here. China is not still called a developing country for nothing.
I don’t really worry so much about myself but I agonize about what I give to my toddler after the food quality news broke.
I have made a habit of sticking to brands I know.
I find this amazing, actually that people worry about food quality when in any given year the number of public health incidents related to food is infinitely less than in the US.
There are recalls almost every week!
My friends here in Huai Hua, tell me it has been a recent development in China with regard to chemicals in food and fake food, etc. I live in a small city by Chinese standards, 300,000 people. However, it is a blend of the open markets and small stores with two large supermarkets. Seeing people face to face everyday may actually reflect doing business in the culture of face. After all, relationships are the foundation of business.
Perhaps, the fake food reflects what happens with modernity when we don’t know the people we deal with.
Over all, I have to tell you that I have more allergies than you can imagine and within the US I can only eat organic fruits and vegetables and very little fish. In China, I can eat their chicken, especially black chicken and duck and I have never had to worry about or been affected by the produce.
You should take comfort in the fact that Chinese food still has less chemicals, less pesticide, fewer chances of encountering GMOs and is produced within farms and lands virtually the way farms have been for ages. Namaste, 湘君
Hi I’m trying to find out more information about the food in China before I bring my family there to live. My one of my children have food allergies since there is problems with the food, what about with traces of peanuts, tree nuts and sesame seeds or oil
I have to disagree with Namaste. The reason why there are recalls & so much hype in the US about food is b/c we are paranoid about our food. If there’s anything wrong or anything near to being wrong, it is recalled. In many places in China it is not even checked. While living in the US I ate fish all the time. Most of it was fresh caught in pristine blue oceans (Florida). All you have to do is take a look at the rivers here, waterways, or a look at the sky and you can just imagine what is passed through to the fish. A problem in the US is all the additives for sure, however there were plenty of places to get fresh-grown veggies & fruit at farmers markets in the summer & fall. I expect country-side food to be healthier no matter where you are. However, I gotta ask, in your village what is the custom of washing hands? Here in Guangdong I rarely ever see people use soap let alone anti-bacterial soap after going to the bathroom. I don’t care if there’s no additives in the food, if you’re not properly washing your own hands & then cooking …? Or how well are you washing the food & keeping harmful bacteria from growing on it if you can’t even properly wash your own hands? Furthermore, where I am they put meat in all the food, even tofu! My sister is a vegetarian & before she comes to visit I am definitely going to either pack up on some food or find some special vegetarian restaurants somewhere. As I’ve had it explained to me, until recent years Chinese didn’t get to eat much meat so now they like to eat it a lot.
Personally, I would not bring children to China. I grew up in rural, clean, healthy Mid-west town. Clear skies, clean rivers & lakes & veggies you can pull from your garden & eat. Here the sky is perpetually foggy but not from rain. The air smells bad. The rivers look disgusting, well etc. My doctor gave me various vaccines before coming here. You really need to check with a doctor what ones you need, especially depending on the area. Some places in China are recommended to have a Malaria vaccine. This is a developing country. Children are still growing & are the most sensitive to the environment. An irony in China is how prized & special children are to them, yet how inconsequential human life is valued at. I’ve been told many times that there’s just too many people in China. My response to them is that just b/c there’s a lot of people doesn’t mean each life isn’t important.
I lived in China several years until last year and I (and my family) was constantly sick in China. Since returning to the US my health is great, back to normal. I feel 20 years younger than I did in China. Between the pollution and the food it was dangerous.
By the way, the reason there are more recalls of food in the US is because the food safety system is enforced AND actually works!
One thing I forgot to say, since veggetable are all cooked to 100* here to kill any bacteria as well as to help get rid of pesticides there is little nutritional value or fiber left. The above statement might be due to a lack of fiber & nutrition. I highly recommend following the Chinese custom of eating lots of nuts & seeds. Otherwise you will most likely be sick often and/or weak. As I recall from my physiology class, its normal for people to defecate once a day. Without eating a large ammount of sunflower seeds, nuts, and/or watermelon seeds each day, I might go only once a week — definitely not normal. Tofu & soymilk is great for protein, rice has better nutrients than pasta, but for the trace minerals & fiber, etc you need to eat nuts & seeds. I also recommend taking Vitamins – just be careful where you buy them from & what brand you buy. If anyone else can think of anything that helps for a balanced diet, please let me know.