Imported food quality

Guest blogger Lance Jungmeyer checking in here ...

More and more, we are beginning to see mainstream media focus attention on the lack of inspections for imported foods. See this story on Fox News, which declares:

"Just 1.3 percent of imported fish, vegetables, fruit and other foods are inspected — yet those government inspections regularly reveal food unfit for human consumption.

Frozen catfish from China, beans from Belgium, jalapenos from Peru, blackberries from Guatemala, baked goods from Canada, India and the Philippines — the list of tainted food detained at the border by the Food and Drug Administration stretches on."

I would expect to see government make the fruit and vegetable industry accountable to Country of Origin Labelling at some point. It's unfortunate that media and the consuming public will want to point blame at producers for the law being delayed all these years, when in fact Congress bowed to pressure from the retail industry to delay implementation. I'm sure retailer lobbyists will find a way to spin the story in their favor.

Personally, I worry more and more about what I eat at restaurants. Who's to say where the product came from? And can we expect the same quality (i.e. safety) as foods from the U.S.A.?

In the eyes of buyers, prudence plays second fiddle to price, always.