(Ecns.cn) – The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) seems to have disappointed Chinese citizens and many domesic enterprises over the past three years, after opening its first branch in China in late 2008.
An obvious expectation of many was that the FDA could help improve safety standards and quality control of foodstuffs and consumer goods, while some Chinese enterprises hoped it would simplify the export routine and find them quicker access to the U.S. market.
However, many are now questioning whether the existence of the branch is meaningful to the Chinese side. Or does it only aim to improve import safeguards for the U.S., by preemptively blocking unqualified products upstream in order to prevent them going downstream?
Speaking a foreign tongue
On September 20, 2011, the FDA's China Office organized its first training session on food safety in Zhanjiang in South China's Guangdong Province. It was on aquatic product breeding and export. Many Chinese enterprise representatives attended the session but were not satisfied with the content.
When a 50-year-old American expert showed the audience a PowerPoint slide, they felt sick after looking at a picture comparing two bottles of water that both had excrement floating inside but were labeled as boiled and unboiled.
The expert told the audience that these two kinds of water were equally disgusting. However, according to an attendee, the whole training course made him feel "sick," not only because of the picture, but also because the training itself was quite outdated for the enterprises as it never took into consideration the problems they might be confronted with when exporting products to the U.S.
It was a totally "American" training, with the attendees being treated like they were pupils from underdeveloped countries. The session lasted for three days, from 8:30am to 6:00pm with only an hour lunch break. They were required to go through a 200-page textbook covering every single detail of aquaculture and food processing. It included general knowledge about which part of a shrimp should be used for food processing, which was seen by most as totally unnecessary.
In fact, the FDA's aquaculture supervision experience was not rich enough to tutor the Chinese enterprises, as American aquatic products mainly come from ocean fisheries and its aquaculture industry is not large-scale.
Li Xiaofeng (alias), an official from a local Bureau of the China Inspection and Quarantine, said Americans still think we are primary school students, but the Chinese experts may be much more knowledgeable than theirs in aquaculture. Li complained that some so-called American experts are still what they were ten years ago.
Some Chinese government officials also joined the session. When the expert disclosed that 22 of 100 samples of imported Chinese aquatic products were contaminated with residues of antifungal agents and antibiotics, they asked the expert when the statistics were released and why the rate was still so high.
After being questioned several times, the expert finally admitted that the statistics were obtained four or five years ago.
Julia, an FDA drug testing expert, also admitted that veterinary drugs are applied more widely in China than in the U.S. Up to now, only eight veterinary drugs have been approved by the FDA to be put to use in aquaculture, but this number is far higher in China. When facing such a discrepancy, the FDA's standard is like a castle in the air.
