'China-Free' food for better health?

Article- Promoting 'Chine-Free food for better health(8/7/2007)

This article I read is about a US health food company labelling its products as 'China-Free' and emphasising that none of its ingredients come from China to ease concerns about contamination. This 'discrimination' against China food products is probably due to the many issues regarding food contamination on China products. One of these issues is on a US couple filing a lawsuit saying their son suffered "severe, bloody diarrhoea" after eating a snack with its seasoning made from imported Chinese ingredients tested to be positive for bacteria. With so many issues pinpointing China for the problem of food contamination, it is not surprising that the US health company made such an act.

However, it might not be fair to China as well. It might be true that some China food producers disregarded the safety of consumers when they are producing their products but not all the companies in China are doing it and the labelling of products as "China-Free" would be unfair to the companies who are not disregarding consumers' safety. In addition, China's food and drug watchdog are making an effort to solve this problem and has pulled off production licenses of five drug makers and penalising 128 others in the past year. Since China has made significant effort to solve this problem and only a minority is contributing to food contamination, should it not be the case that other countries give China a chance to prove itself?

In conclusion, I feel that the"China-Free" products is a move that is too extreme to ease concerns about contamination problems.