Rat Meat Sold as Lamb
Rat Meat Sold as Lamb
If you have some extra rodents such as rats laying around you could probably sell them to some of the low rung meat manufacturers in China.
In our large multi-cultural city I do occasionally visit Asian Markets with much of the food coming from China. However with the latest scandal I will never look at it the same way.
The latest scandal from China’s food industry is a criminal ring that got their meat from RATS and other animals and then modified and sold it as lamb meat.
Consumers routinely purchased the meat, not knowing they were eating “rat steaks” at home.
Beyond the obvious gross factor of the discovery, the rat meat used in the scam was obviously never safety tested or inspected. It may have been, like many other foods in China, heavily contaminated with heavy metals and toxic chemicals. Rats, after all, don’t live the cleanest lifestyles.
Do you really know what’s in all the food you’re eating that’s imported from China?
If you don’t, you’re actually in good company: The FDA only inspects 1% – 2% of all the food imported from China, so they don’t know either. Even when they inspect a shipment, they rarely test it for heavy metals, pesticides, PCBs or other toxic contaminants.
Yes it is true that some countries such as Cambodia and other Asian countries do eat rats. These food plants were not selling them as rat meat rather than lamb.
Rats also carry many diseases including Salmonella which is passed through food or drink contaminated with rats excreta or urine. Salmonellosis, of course, is a type of food poisoning which results in acute gastro-enteritis, headache, fever and vomiting
The industry in China is divided between top-notch companies that are highly skilled and do all the right things, and the second- and third-tier producers, some of which are just sloppy bucket shops,” said Peter Kovacs, a food-industry consultant based in Incline Village, Nev.
Foreign brokers concur that the low end of China’s market has severe problems.
“Sometimes you enter a factory, and you say, ‘I can’t believe they produce food here.’ It’s dirty and the machines are old,” said Jan Willem Roben of Vision Ingredients in Shanghai, a broker of food additives for export.
Since U.S. laws don’t require food and drug sellers to label products with the country of origin of ingredients, it’s impossible for consumers to know where food or supplements are coming from, not to mention what factory produced them
Vitamins fall into an area in China that straddles the food industry, comprising some 2 million businesses that exported $2.5 billion worth of goods last year, and the drug industry, which has 5,000 companies. China makes 90% of the Vitamin C on the market.
When it comes to your health whether it be food of supplements you can’t play Russian Roulette or this case Chinese Roulette.
Get your food and you vitamins from a reputable source . A company that actually does clinical tests on their products and can prove the results with clinical tests and are published in a Peer Review Professional Journal.
Shaklee Corporation a 56 year old company has been doing that for years. They investment of over $250 million in product research and development, over 100 peer-reviewed clinical studies published in respected journals, over 83,000 quality assurance tests per year, and award-winning manufacturing in a pharmaceutical grade facility…which means the first to the millionth tablet have the same amount of ingredients and quality.
In many supplements this is simply not true…So be careful what you choose whether it be food or supplements.
