International Law

FDA Inspectors Embedded in Chinese Food Production System?

From the New York Times: China Agrees to Post U.S. Safety Officials in Its Food Factories.

Embedded, like Judith Miller in Iraq?

Michael O. Leavitt, secretary of health and human services, said he expected that Food and Drug Administration officials would eventually be embedded in China?s food safety bureaucracy to help train Chinese officials and keep records on their inspections.

Did Mr. Leavitt make use of the word "embedded" in conversation with the interviewing journalist, Steven Weisman? Or did Mr. Weisman himself choose that word, pregnant with negative connotation, while lacking a direct quotation from Mr. Leavitt?

China and the United States, seeking to ease the furor over the safety of food exports, signed an agreement Tuesday calling for a greater American role in certifying and inspecting Chinese food products, including an increased presence of American officials at Chinese production plants.

This should help, shouldn't it? English speaking inspectors in an entirely Chinese environment. Many thousands of factories to be monitored -- extraordinary cost of bringing American inspectors to China, housing and feeding them, etc...

This agreement will provide an opportunity to have our people here on a continuous basis with expertise so that we can work with our Chinese colleagues in helping to develop good practices,? Dr. von Eschenbach said.

People is plural, meaning at least two. But the precise number of inspectors was not actually specified.

American officials said that the agreement did not cover all the food products sought for tighter inspections, but that it could be expanded. It is to cover some preserved foods, pet food ingredients and farm-raised fish, all products that the United States has said were tainted.

But, wait! Only a few food groups would undergo any inspection at all.

One may conclude that this initiative has been a major failure, from conception to implementation, on the part of American food and safety officials. Can one, however, consider this a public relations success?

Full post as published by Asia Business Intelligence on December 12, 2007 (boomark / email).