Beans & LegumesGuess Who Buys Their Food From China?
I’m quite confident in saying that a large percentage of people living in China buy their food from China. I on the other hand happen to live in the USA and I’m extremely appreciative of the fact that I have a choice in whether or not I’ll consume food products from China.
Interestingly enough, more and more people have recently expressed similar concerns to us and I think for good reason.
A recent article came out in The New York Times by Mark Bittman where he highlights recent “food safety oddities” that have cropped up in China. Did you hear about the wedding where over 250 guests were hospitalized after they consumed pork which contained Clenbuterol, a drug used to make pigs grow faster and leaner? Apparently the drug if taken in excess causes nausea, convulsions, dizziness, vomiting and heart palpitations. Sounds like a quick way to ruin a wedding feast to me.
Add to this exploding watermelons (caused by a chemical that’s used to help fruit grow faster), glowing pork (due to phosphorescent bacteria), meals cooked using oil dredged from sewers, pork disguised and sold as beef, counterfeit eggs made from chemicals and egg-shaped molds and soy sauce made using human hair clippings and I’m left to wonder, “Where’s the regulation?”
Bittman’s article does say that the Chinese government is actively cracking down on food safety issues. However, they’re also trying to clamp down on journalists “deliberately misleading” the public about these issues. Phelim Kine, a researcher for Human Rights Watch was quoted saying, “In China, the reflexive desire to cover up and hide has trumped transparency and the need to protect health.”
While I have no doubt that the USA is not without fault in the food industry, it’s not on the same level with China. China’s food safety challenges seem MUCH worse. Having spent time in developing countries, I know from first hand experience that my own perception of what is sanitary was not consistent with the conditions I came across. The point being, culturally speaking what an American might find as acceptable is totally different than what a Chinese person might find as an acceptable practice for the growing, harvesting and processing of food products.
To be clear, I have no doubt that there is food grown in China that’s perfectly healthy and sanitary and vice-versa there is food grown in the USA that is unhealthy and unsanitary. On the other hand, if someone were to present me with two bowls of identical strawberries and told me that one was grown in China and the other was grown in the USA. I’d pick the USA grown strawberry every time.
You’ll be happy to know that The Ready Store does not source any of its food products from China.
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Never really thought of this to be honest, I buy from several different food storage companies (always looking for the best deal) and this makes me wonder if the others are getting any food from questionable areas.
Anyone already done the homework and asked this?
July 10th, 2011 at 4:50 amSometimes it is difficult to know where the food comes from. It may say “processed” or “canned” in the US but the meat came from somewhere else or fruit or whatever the item might be. So we never really know where it comes from. This is not in all cases but many times. Scarey. I want to know exactly where my food comes from. That would be nice.
July 11th, 2011 at 4:13 amI’d like to know if any of your food items come from Japan?The need to be concerned about Asian products due to radiation exposure is certainly on my mind. Sure would appreciate an honest answer to this question.
July 11th, 2011 at 4:16 amBottom-Line: AVOID foods from CHINA – best u can. With nearly a half-million different food suppliers in China -most with under 10-12 employees- its IMPOSSIBLE for CHINA to monitor or police ‘quality standards’ or whats getting shipped to America. SO JUST AVOID CHINESE-SUPPLIED FOOD. BUY LOCAL where possible.
July 11th, 2011 at 4:27 amIn February I emailed four large/popular online sellers of freeze dried/dehydrated foods asking if their food is grown or processed in China. I’ll give them high marks for honesty but I’m not as confident purchasing from them as I once was. Marty, like you I’ve looked for the best prices. However, The Ready Nation may have just gained me as a customer with their assurance that they don’t buy from China.
I’m not going to publicly post the companies I emailed but will suggest you email the companies you’re interested in. Here were my results:
July 11th, 2011 at 4:38 amOne replied they ‘try to steer clear of food from China’. Another one said they ‘do not have a list where foods are grown or processed’. The third said that they ‘occasionally purchase fruits and vegetables from China when not in season’. The last one said their vendors shop a wide variety of markets so ‘some of our products could come from China’.
There is no doubt that buying food of any sort from China is a HUGE mistake, but I am also deeply concerned about the extraordinarily HIGH content of pesticides in our USA foods, the genetically modified foods that are dominating our grocery stores and the fact that our own country is ruining our supply of food and destroying our food chain. It may not be as gross as what China does, but, it’s equally unhealthy and disease causing, just on a different level. It’s more important to focus on USA’s food quality that we purchase as it is not as easy anymore to avoid buying & eating toxic foods on our homeland as it it is to not buy food from China.
July 11th, 2011 at 5:04 amI’ve recently noticed that only one brand of canned mushrooms in the grocery store are even grown in the U.S. Most of them are from China! I was especially disgusted that the can that says “Pennsylvania” on the label is not grown in the U.S. No thanks!
Thank you for this article!
July 11th, 2011 at 5:08 amVery good article written here with valid questions. the question I have for the Ready Nation Company and others is are your veggies of the GMO variety. Thank you from a customer who has bought your products.
July 11th, 2011 at 5:29 amDon’t forget the fact that most Chinese veggies are fertilized with “night soil” which is essentially uncomposted human fecal matter (doo-doo) which passes on infections of all sorts.
July 11th, 2011 at 5:50 amAdd to that, the high amount of mercury and lead in the soil.
What about the poisoned dog food that had everyone’s dogs dying of kidney failure early on? And the melamine poisoned milk?
No… you don’t want anything from China.
When I shop I always check the labels on the cans, more companies are using food grown in china. I don’t buy any can goods that have china on it. In fact I gave away a bunch of tuna from japan. In Japan they kill dolphins and sell as other fish. So they lie to the people about what type of fish there ready eating.
July 11th, 2011 at 6:54 amWatch the movie The Cove this will wake you up, it is sick what they are doing over there to the dolphins.
Did you know that it is in the consistitution that our foods cannot be patiened and here we are with the hybrid foods. Something that was dismissed and allowed to slip through. There is a very good reason for this law, it would keep anyone from having control of the food.
Did you know that GM foods have e-coli to make it a hybrid and they want to act as if they have no idea where the e-coli break outs come from.
It scares me to think what is happening to our food supply. I never used to check where food or items that I bought came from. Now, I check everything. I buy organic when I can and will not purchase any food originating from China. However, I never thought to check with the long term food storage companies. I have bought alot of food storage from different sources and will question them as to where their food is processed. Thanks so much for the article and comments.
July 11th, 2011 at 9:43 amHeck…..
July 11th, 2011 at 9:44 amIf you think the food in the US is safe – YOU ARE WRONG…The produce being grown in California has to be affected by the fallout from Japan, if it’s showing up in the rainwater in Missouri. WHY ISN’T SOMEONE CHECKING THE CALIFORNIA PRODUCE?????
Thanks for posting this, I appreciate it.
July 11th, 2011 at 10:06 amThere are, as usual, frequent internet discussions on this very topic, and rightfully so.
I make the assumption you are referring to your “House Brand”, Saratoga Farms.
I’ll continue to be a customer here, as the safety of the food my family consumes is paramount to me.
To the concerns of others posting to this thread…short of growing at least some of your own organically… we do and it’s a real challenge at times…it’s hard to avoid the GMO crap that’s saturated our U.S. market…so we do our best to minimize our consumption and avoid the pre-packaged, pre-prepared junk that passes as “food” on our grocery shelves. Cooking from “scratch” isn’t hard and is worth the time and effort.
Just my ever devaluing $.02 worth…
Good Luck to all.
Many items that the Dole brand sells now come from China. Check it out, it is hard to find items that are not. Supposedly Dole closed their Hawaii pineapple plants. Wow that hurts! Even the huge scare about lead paint in toys sold over here coming from China, LOL because all they do is now say they are a “product of Canada.” Let’s see they ship them to Canada and then ship them to us – same toys, same paint, just a different name of origin.
July 11th, 2011 at 10:16 amI’m glad to see this post and stimulating comments. It’s heartening to see so many of us awake to these concerns.
July 11th, 2011 at 10:47 amOne of the storage food advertisers at my blog site spoke ill of another company because he claimed they got some of their products from China. When I contacted the accused company, they denied it. Their claim is that they use non-GMO foods grown here in the U.S.
As with so many things these days, it’s hard to know 100% sure what the truth is.
I agree with the comments about the problems of our own country’s food supply. All I can say is to do the best you can when it comes to choosing, growing, and eating food that’s as clean and pure as possible.
Thanks for the info here.. just to clarify though when you say that “The Ready Store does not source any of its food products from China.” have you checked with Mountain House to see if they do? Or if Datrix,mainstay and the makers of your MRE’s do.?
These days its hard not to find something with ingredients from abroad..Companies still have to compete with others and that means what cost less, usually is used.
Thanks,
July 11th, 2011 at 10:51 amal
Corporate profit rules today, so where foods come from is not as important to them as how cheap the purchase price. I also see a lot of produce coming up from Mexico and South America, and I can only assume we’ll be hearing some awful stories out of some of those countries as well. American food growers and producers, to stay profitable, may already be taking advantage of our government’s cutbacks of food inspectors, opting for more use of questionable chemicals to improve their sale volume. All we can try to do is watch closely what we eat and hope our bodies can deal with what we miss!
July 11th, 2011 at 11:17 amI am an American living in Shanghai and I try not to eat the local food. Even locals prefer to buy imported products if they can afford to do so. It is so bad here that you simply cannot trust that the imported brands are actually imported. I heard a rumor that you couldn’t make yogurt from Chinese milk because of the amount of chemicals consumed by the cows… they were right. Often organic food, which is very expensive here, is bigger and more beautiful than the regular food… this is so amazing. I feel sorry for the ethical Chinese because there is so much fraud that you can’t trust anything. They say China will be the next super-power… they have a long way to go before they are able to develop brands like Coke, Harley Davidson, Mercedes, etc…
July 11th, 2011 at 11:55 amBut even our own manufacturing plants are going overseas.John Deere, is relocating their plants to EUROPE.
They say oit will be cheaper to get supplies for parts and less expensive to maker. This is one of our longest living American Plants.
I try to buy local always, and I have gotten gun shy of most products pre-packged in the stores.
I guess I need to make a list and publish it about where our products come from.
I hope you do not buy anything from China .. I like the gentleman before,, HOPE you can say you do not source any of your products from CHina….
janei
And then they wonder why we need food storage at all.. what happens if our ports/airports are closed for more than a couple days…..
July 11th, 2011 at 12:25 pmWith our products coming from overseas..there will be nothing….
I try to buy American..but some things are near impossible to find. It’s taken me almost a year to find lightbulbs made in AMerica. There are no more fabrics made here, and a lot of our cotton gins have gone to China.
We as Americans, need to stand up again and say,, buy here first, and get back our manufacturing/food suppliers, etc . We have been sold overseas,, jobs, etc
janei
For those who wonder about the source of Mountain House food, this is copied from their website:
Does Mountain House use ingredients from China?
Mountain House purchases hundreds of ingredients from all over the world. Out of the hundreds of ingredients we use, there are only 3 ingredients from China. These 3 ingredients are used in the following flavors: Spicy Oriental, Chicken Teriyaki, Beef Teriyaki.
July 11th, 2011 at 12:58 pmTry……Jyst TRY to find Garlic Powder that doesn’t come from China. The ONLY seller who actually tests the shipments is the parent company of Shop N Save & Save-A-Lot (and a few other chains). I called them because there wasn’t a Country of Origin on thier label- but there is an 800 number. I receied a call back and was informed that garlic powder from the US would be 5 times as expensive. The only difference is that they test each shipment for quality and purity and he guaranteed me it was OK “I let my children eat it” he said….
July 11th, 2011 at 1:29 pmSince I source all my emergency food from the Ready Store, and since the d**n Chinese killed two of my dogs with their poison dog food, I greatly appreciate knowing they do NOT source from China. I spent a few years overseas and I can tell you Americans don’t have a clue about how good they have it in this country. We are blessed, exceptional, and on the way to communism wherein all we hold dear will be destroyed.
July 11th, 2011 at 2:02 pmI wonder if food items grown or made in China are even disclosed on the labels? When we buy canned and frozen food we might be buying it and never know it. Is there so way we can be sure? Do you know of any brands to stay away from?
July 11th, 2011 at 2:10 pmI agree with just about all of the previous comments. I think all of our food sources should come from the US. I think our country should be self-supportive in all aspects…including the protection of our borders. (Which isn’t happening.) It makes me feel good about purchasing from The Ready Store, knowing about their policies regarding the food. The US might have its own problems with growing and manufacturing its home-grown foods, but I feel better about buying it than from China. We rely way too much on China. I try to buy as many items as possible that are made here, before I put a foreign-made item into my shopping cart. As Americans, we should be compelled to to this always. Don’t let China take our country from us. Thanks for posting about this. I appreciate it.
July 11th, 2011 at 2:27 pmThough I think its great to support Food grown and processed in The USA verses China or elsewhere, The USA is slipping in its safeguards…Do a net seach on “Pink Slime and ground meat”….made in the USA.
http://www.disabled-world.com/fitness/nutrition/pink-slime.php
-al
July 11th, 2011 at 3:24 pmFrom The Ready Store:
Jacee commented on this but I would like to also post this to answer your question.
Jacee – For those who wonder about the source of Mountain House food, this is copied from their website:
Does Mountain House use ingredients from China?
Mountain House purchases hundreds of ingredients from all over the world. Out of the hundreds of ingredients we use, there are only 3 ingredients from China. These 3 ingredients are used in the following flavors: Spicy Oriental, Chicken Teriyaki, Beef Teriyaki.
As for the MRE’s & Calorie Bar’s (Datrex | Mainstay) these are manufacturers are contracted with the US Government. The food sources are surly not from China.
Thanks,
The Ready Store
July 11th, 2011 at 3:30 pmSHERI, check the first three digits on the bar code. If they are 690, 691 or 692 then it comes from China. Not sure if it’s the same for food products though. Hope that helps a bit. Good luck kid.
July 11th, 2011 at 3:54 pmMake no mistake about it America is going the way of China. Politicians are making beelines towards regulations to try and wipe them out. The big “Austerity” move here in America is about wiping all regulation.
Such as the Hundreds of millions taken away from the FDA, the EPA, the FCC, etc. the politicians that wish to cut these regulations are the ones being paid off directly from BIG AG.
It’s way more people are growing their own food, one it’s cheaper, and two it’s cleaner.
July 11th, 2011 at 4:00 pmyou say you do not “source” any of its food products from China…. BUT do your “sources” get any of their ingredients from China…?
From The Ready Store:
Dave, the food products we are getting from our suppliers do not come from China, while some of these suppliers have products that come from China (at a significant discount) we do not buy them.
We have tested the quality of many different food items from China (trust me these suppliers are beating down our door like all of the others) and feel that not only is it not as good tasting there are safety issues that need to be addressed. Like we have always said if it is not good enough for our own family it isn’t good enough for our customers.
Thanks,
The Ready Store
July 11th, 2011 at 4:03 pm@SURVIVOR
I dont think that is correct, check out the wikipedia page to read up on it, I found nothing about country of origin there
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Product_Code
(not saying wikipedia is the source of all truth but it usually is spot on when it comes to most things)
July 11th, 2011 at 4:05 pmYet another reason why I buy my food storage from The Ready Store. Thanks guys!!
July 11th, 2011 at 4:40 pmRich, I copied and pasted this from an artical I got from NEWSMAX. I think they are a better source than wikipedia. Just my oppinion.
————————–
ALWAYS READ THE LABELS ON THE FOODS YOU BUY–NO MATTER WHAT THE FRONT OF THE BOX OR PACKAGE SAYS, TURN IT OVER AND READ THE BACK—CAREFULLY!
With all the food and pet products now coming from China , it is best to make sure you read labels at the grocery store and especially Walmart when buying food products. Many products no longer show where they were made, only give where the distributor is located. It is important to read the bar code to track it’s origin.
How to read Bar Codes ….
GREAT WAY TO “BUY USA & CANADA ” AND NOT FROM CHINA!!
The whole world is afraid of China-made “black hearted goods”. Can you differentiate which one is made in Taiwan or China? If the first 3 digits of the barcode are 690, 691 or 692, the product is MADE IN CHINA. 471 is Made in Taiwan. This is our right to know, but the government and related departments never educate the public, therefore we have to RESCUE ourselves. Nowadays, Chinese businessmen know that consumers do not prefer products “MADE IN CHINA”, so they don’t show from which country it is made. However, you may now refer to the barcode – remember if the first 3 digits are:
690-692 … then it is MADE IN CHINA
00 – 09 …. USA & CANADA
30 – 37 … FRANCE
40 – 44 … GERMANY
471 … Taiwan
49 … JAPAN
50 … UK
BUY USA & CANADIAN MADE by watching for “0″ at the beginning of the number. We need every boost we can get!
July 11th, 2011 at 4:49 pmI have noticed in the grocery store more and more foods from China…It is difficult here, in GA, to find seafood not from China. Also, I have noticed, that Polar brand is almost exclusively from China. They also a year or two ago poisoned their infants with melamine plastic in baby formula, an attempt to make it appear they had more protein than it actually contained.
July 11th, 2011 at 4:53 pmDo you guys carry any non-food products from China?
July 11th, 2011 at 10:23 pmjust a tip off of snopes.com about the country of origin and barcodes:
“Unfortunately, determination of product origins isn’t quite as cut and dried as it’s been made to sound here. The UPC-A bar code and its cousin, the European Article Number ( EAN ) bar code, incorporate two- or three-digit but what those country codes indicate is the country or economic region where a particular bar code was assigned , not necessarily the country where the product identified by that bar code originated”
taken from this page:
http://www.snopes.com/politics/business/barcodes.asp
July 11th, 2011 at 10:47 pm@DK wrote:
“Make no mistake about it America is going the way of China. Politicians are making beelines towards regulations to try and wipe them out. The big “Austerity” move here in America is about wiping ALL (emphasis added) regulation.”
Please don’t use generalities unless you have a valid reference to back it up. There are too many regulations that are duplications and/or abusive to businesses in this country that were passed by the Fed. departments you mentioned. Some regs need to go away, some need to stay. Be sure any write your representative about those you feel should stay on the books – food safety being one area. But in some cases, there is over-regulation, which needs to be looked at by Congress. Those departments should not be arbitrarily passing regs without input from us – through our Reps.
July 11th, 2011 at 10:50 pmFrom The Ready Store:
@ SURVIVOR & @KC
KC is right in that the bar code only really tells you the origin of the canning. You could get food from China and bring it here and can it and you would have a US UPC label even though you are eating Chinese food. If the food was canned there then shipped then yes it would show that it is from China but that is not what others in the industry are doing. They are buying it in bulk and canning it here in their facilities.
Thanks,
The Ready Store
July 11th, 2011 at 10:52 pmI noticed the frozen fish at Sam’s Cub and some other stores is farmed in China. I typically stay away from these, since the who petfood nightmare. If they are using drugs to make pigs grow faster, what are they doing with fish? Makes you wonder.
July 11th, 2011 at 11:06 pmI work with small (not large corporate) U.S. farms and ranches, helping them to be more productive, go organic (if desired) and conserve resources and I can assure you that there is no shortage of regulation on them. It appears to be slanted in the favor of the large agribusiness entities. If you are concerned about your food supply, AND YOU SHOULD BE, you need to buy local–particularly organic. Get to know your local farms/farmers/ranchers. We are losing small farms daily to over-regulation and low profit margin due to a variety of causes. Buy Local!!! Once a farm is converted to a neighborhood- the ultimate costs to us are incalculable…
July 12th, 2011 at 1:43 am@KC, @The Ready Store
July 12th, 2011 at 3:06 pmI stand corrected on the bar code thing. It’s just what I read so I thot I’d pass it along. I try not to state everything as fact with the exception that the government is screwing us blue. I’ve been wrong on a lot of things, just ask my wife.
I think our wives would get along SURVIVOR, haha.
July 12th, 2011 at 3:12 pm@Admin
July 12th, 2011 at 3:43 pmWives getting along is OK just so they never ever get together. Can you imagine the trouble we, the husbands, could be in that ever happened. I think they would become like the Borg. We would be assimilated. It’s a very scary thought.
Ok waste of time…it says eat American grown food, it’s safer than food grown in china….was this article intended to make me feel ‘safer’ about GMO’s that we have here or that China will kill off a large portion of their own population with GMO’s? I totally missed the point…and what does it have to do with Ready Store? It doesn’t have any conclusion or relationship to tie it in that I could ascertain.
July 12th, 2011 at 5:29 pm@concerned parent
Maybe you need to read it again, the article is addressing the question of if The Ready Store gets food from China. While some of the food here in the US is far from perfect it is MUCH better than what is being brought over from China.
Hell one of the guys who wrote above lives in Shanghai and says the locals try to eat imported food and shy away from locally produced food because they even know it’s bad.
July 12th, 2011 at 5:44 pmSpeaking of food safety, like many other posters to this site, I like to eat organic to avoid pesticides and other chemicals as much as possible in my children’s diet. Why not offer FD ORGANIC foods? I know I would be willing to pay the extra premium.
July 12th, 2011 at 8:20 pm@ML
July 12th, 2011 at 8:27 pmI wouldn’t put a lot of faith in organic grown food. Last year or the year before there was a massive outbreak of e-coli from a couple of the organic farms in good old california. You want to be totally safe? Grow you’re own vegies.
@ ML
That is just it ML, there are not enough people like you that will pay for it. Our suppliers tell us the market just isn’t large enough to warrant it at this time.
The Ready Store
July 12th, 2011 at 8:56 pmAre you testing the food you use for radiation? Especially if it’s from CA?
From The Ready Store:
The suppliers have quality control procedures/testing that they perform on each harvest to make sure the product is safe and of consistent quality.
Thanks,
The Ready Store
July 13th, 2011 at 1:20 amThis has been a very informative post! I’ve enjoyed reading all of the comments. I know you sell a lot more than just food and I was curious if any of those non-food products come from China. I saw that Charles had asked as well but I haven’t seen an answer yet…
Thanks!
From The Ready Store:
You are right, I didn’t get back to Charles question! I will answer you both here
. As for our non-food products we do sell some products that are made from China. Some are made there, some are made in Europe (Katadyn water filters for example) and some are made here in the US. First priority is to source products made in the US and with the food it makes absolute sense to do so despite being a little more expensive sometimes when compared to our China sourcing competitors.
Thanks,
The Ready Store
July 13th, 2011 at 7:53 pmSince we lost two of our dogs from American/Chinese dog food, I try not to purchase anything made in whole or in part by China and that includes clothes since our bodies are great at absorbing chemicals through the skin. I try to buy organic although one has to investigate the government changes that were made in the definition of what is organic just before the huge “organic” push. P.S. Things are worse in Japan than they are letting on. So, it’s a good idea to check radiation levels on everything coming from the Far East.
July 16th, 2011 at 3:32 amwhat an eye opening bunch of posts. as soon as i read about the canned mushrooms coming from china, i went to my pantry, and sure enough it said product of china. won’t buy that again, and will check on all my canned goods, especially from the big box stores…
July 19th, 2011 at 4:21 pmI get all my products inspections done in China.
August 6th, 2011 at 9:38 amAre there any good quality control services?
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December 2nd, 2011 at 3:58 am