Food - What are we really Eating?

Chris

Gold
Oct 21, 2002
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www.caribbetech.com
After the bad toothpaste from China, it is easy to form an opinion that 'all food from China is suspect'. I found this article with facts from the FDA ...

"For instance, produce from the Dominican Republic was stopped 817 times last year, usually for containing traces of illegal pesticides. Candy from Denmark was impounded 520 times.

By comparison, Chinese seafood was stopped at the border 391 times during the last year. "

?The reality is, this is not a single-country issue at all,? said Carl R. Nielsen, who resigned from the Food and Drug Administration in 2005, after 28 years. His last job was director of the division of import operations and policy in the agency?s Office of Regulatory Affairs. ?What we are experiencing is massive globalization,? he said. "

China Not Sole Source of Dubious Food | TuscaloosaNews.com

Perhaps the DR Food growers and producers need to be scrutinized and we have to be sure of the chemicals used on the food that we eat.
 

SantiagoDR

The "REAL" SantiagoDR
Jan 12, 2006
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After the bad toothpaste from China, it is easy to form an opinion that 'all food from China is suspect'. I found this article with facts from the FDA ...

"For instance, produce from the Dominican Republic was stopped 817 times last year, usually for containing traces of illegal pesticides.

A friend told me about the "Tropical Melons" being sold at a large supermarcado here in Santiago after I complained that the cantaloupes sometimes did not have a good cantaloupe taste. The tropical melons were/are much better tasting (Always having a cantaloupe taste) then the regular cantaloupes.

However, every once in a while, I would get one that tasted like bug spray, I would immediately throw it away. I have since gotten away from buying them.

With your post Chris, I have even more reservations about buying them again.
 

Mirador

On Permanent Vacation!
Apr 15, 2004
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So there isn't the equivalent of a food and drug adm. in the DR as of 2007?

There are laws in the books designed to defend the consumer, however, they are brazenly broken by the same government institutions created to enforce them. Take, for example, the recent case of the tainted Chinese toothpaste. There are regulations in the books that establishes specific requirements and procedures to acquire an import license for a new product. However, it is known that the Administrative Secretary of the Presidency, Mr. Miguel Bonetti (aka Papote) and the Minister of Industry and Commerce, Mr Francisco Javier Garc?a Fern?ndez, issue import licenses to political cronies, outside the established procedure. This is also happening in other areas, including water meters, electricity meters, and even gas pump meters. None of them are being regulated. Of course, they all have the ubiquitous DIGENOR seals pasted on them. On my last trip to San Juan de la Maguana, I decided to catch one of the cheating petrol stations (which, according to an acquaintance, most of them are). So instead of having my tank filled, I had the attendant fill a 5 gallon container I was carying. It was the first Shell station upon leaving San Juan. When the container was filled, the pump meter read 5.5 gallons. I called the owner on my cell-phone, and the SOB told me that it was a common practice, that all petrol stations did it, that is, overcharging 10% of the serviced amount.
 
Jan 5, 2006
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... they all have the ubiquitous DIGENOR seals pasted on them...
Going back to the time that I was a kid growing up in SD, I remember that it was a common practice for businesses to dispose of the government inspector with a few pesos for overlooking the "fixed" scales, meters, etc.

Nothing has changed with this government or any of ones before it. :(