It has been a while since I have taken on the dismal food safety record of the mainland Chinese food industry. In the past we have seen the use of melamine in milk and other dairy products which resulted in the deaths of three children and the sickening of more than 300,000 people. We saw the use of duck urine on goat meat to make it taste like lamb while some meat labeled as lamb has been found to contain rat, fox, and mink meat. Recently, "gutter oil", an illegal cooking oil pulled from grease traps and sewers has been discovered being used in restaurants and street vendor stalls.

The Chinese government has tried repeatedly to curb these and other abuses but has fallen woefully short. Even the threat of executions has not seemed to have had any impact.

While I wish the Chinese well, I think the only thing we can do is stay away from finished food products that carry the "Made in China" label. Unfortunately, it will be much more difficult to determine which grocery shelf packages contain ingredients sourced from China. 

The above is truly a shame as the Chinese palate and traditional food stuffs could be a really good addition to all the other Asian cuisines that are impacting our eating habits in a big way.