Eating Chinese chicken in Detroit

Revere, the article quotes a professor saying the virus can be killed by "plain old soap and water, any type of disinfectant or household bleach".

The reporter says it isn't clear why the feds went after this particular shipment. And why they failed to test any of the frozen products they confiscated. The state health authorities sounded pretty put out about that.

As for the banning of poultry products, it seems this has been going on back and forth between the US and China for some time. In fact, if you look this up, you'll find articles talking about China's ban on US chicken products after a finding of avian flu in Delaware in 2004. So it's hard to know just what is going on in this particular instance.

Aunt Deb: What you say is correct. However USDA policy is not to import poultry products from areas where there is bird flu on the one hand but say if they are homegrown no health problem. This is the usual wanting to have it one way but also wanting to protect the domestic poultry industry and therefore need it the other way. USDA has both promotional and regulatory responsitility, a recipe for conflict of interest. We know which side usually loses in that one.

Since China is funding our buying spree in this country I wonder what else the feds will look over to protect their favorite #1 banker. More than once in this country the administration has pulled funding on projects that they did not want to see the light of day. "Oh it's frightening in the dark but for heaven's sake don't turn on the lights you'll scare the children" said the Fed.

As one who drives through Detroit and Troy daily, the idea of pulling frozen ground turkey from my fridge is now, uhm, chilling.

The content of the article seemed perfectly legitimate to me.

1. How this poultry got illegally imported to the US, how/when it was slaughtered and if there is more of it...and if it is contaminated with avian influenza, are absolutely public health issues.

2. If, indeed, cooking will kill the virus, the frozen meat is not a major crisis in its own right.

They seemed to be two different issues in my mind. And they are contacting the businesses the meat was distributed to, so #2 sounds like a "remain calm" message, nothing more.

Eric: These two points get conflated by the USDA and the Commissioner in his talking points. I have no problem with either statement, but they are then put together to say: (1) if hi path H5N1 comes to the US, don't worry about it. It isn't a public health problem because properly cooked chicken is safe; (2) If it comes to us from China, it is a public health problem. Either contaminated chicken is or isn't a public health problem, not yes, if it comes from China and, no, if it is in the US. That's why I said it was a mixed (up) message.

Why is it good for it to be economically sound to import frozen foods to the US?

Excellent point, Homeboy. Why is chicken raised and slaughtered in China attractive economically to wholesalers in the middle of the US? Why, indeed, is any perishable commodity from far away at a more attractive price than domestic produce?

Another disturbing matter is the length of time is took from USDA, to state, to public revelation. Also, the meat was confiscated and destroyed, not confiscated, TESTED, and destroyed. What, me worry?

Here we go again with the doubletalk. Sure, thoroughly cooked chicken (even H5N1-infected chicken) may be completely safe, but someone still has to handle the raw bird before it goes into the stew pot. And I doubt everyone who handles raw chicken prior to cooking immediately disinfects the countertop, knife, cutting board, their hands, etc. before chopping up the lettuce for the family's salad. But what do I know? I'm still feeding raw chicken to the big cats over at the sanctuary every week and I feel fine... just fine.....

Homeboy,
Maybe they just wanted some food that didn't come from a 'dioxin zone'. Midland is a long way from Troy, but how far do you trust Dow?

The distance travelled by the food in a standard, ordinary American meal, on the plate, is said to average 1,500 miles. I don't know of any solid stats (or papers) on this topic (I'm a psychologist), it is all a bit back-of-the-envelope, as far as I can see. I have read some articles (mainly net, newspapers), that claim that that distance is larger for the British Isles; others that say the distance is smaller for France ("we buy fresh products daily" - heh!), etc.

The main point, though, is inescapable. In the developed West, we buy food that is produced in the third world at very low cost, but pay for the transport. Here in Switz, we buy asparagus from Mexico - more than 80% of the costs are transport costs (fossil fuels), whereas we could grow them ourselves. A quick look at the dairy Industry in Britain (google) shows that they export to the Continent as much as they import .. There is an endless chassé-croisé of creme freche, crème véritable, mulberry yoghourt, Danon strawberry yogs, etc. etc. All in refrigerated trucks! (I looked up just the one product.)

Link is to one site that promotes local eating, low brow, but many interesting details in the stories.

http://www.100milediet.org/

A side issue that I've been kind of waiting/hoping revere(s) might bring up on this blog is the world wide effect on nutrition that the avian influenza epidemic is having. This is a huge public health issue, particularly in poor areas (of any country, not just third world) where poultry meat is traditionally a mainstay of the diet, which may turn out to be just as deadly in the long run to the human race as a pandemic. I know that this subject has been covered in various news articles, but the great thing about this blog is there are so many well informed and educated people to contribute thoughts and data here that kind of bring it all together for us.

A fair question that the article does not answer:

Who is the importing company, and do they have more than one distribution point? Oftentimes, distributors who import food themselves are quite large entities, with multiple locations in multiple cities, and large central warehouses from which they distribute to the local warehouses and stores. Is that the case here as well?

My point being here, does anyone know if there is more of this chicken out there?
Franc (penguinzee)

penguinzee: Latest from local news in Detroit:

The mystery meat search continues. County health inspectors are visiting Chinese restaurants that may have gotten shipments of illicit poultry from China.

Authorities said Tinsway Trading Company of Troy got hundreds of pounds of poultry smuggled from China last month and may have sold it to restaurants and Asian stores. There is no evidence that anyone was exposed to the bird flu virus, but Michigan Agriculture Director Mitch Irwin said, "There (are) about five boxes of product out there yet to reviewed and assessed, and (the) USDA tells us that's not a major problem." Irwin spoke with WJR's Paul W. Smith.

Immigrants often want food from home, even if it is banned. Chinese poultry is barred because of the avian flu. Some of the food seized at the Troy warehouse Included chicken entrails, chicken feet and fetal pigs.

Revere:

"(1) if hi path H5N1 comes to the US, don't worry about it. It isn't a public health problem because properly cooked chicken is safe; (2) If it comes to us from China, it is a public health problem. Either contaminated chicken is or isn't a public health problem, not yes, if it comes from China and, no, if it is in the US. That's why I said it was a mixed (up) message."

Agreed it's a mixed up message the way it was written. However, I think what they are trying to say is that frozen chicken for cooking *isn't* a public health problem. The chickens themselves, while they were living, breathing, pooping, mixing with other chickens exported from a country with avian influenza, are.

To put it short: Frozen breasts and legs aren't, birds are.

Eric: Well, frozen duck meat imported into Japan from China had replicable H5N1 in it, so it isn't so clear.

It is my understanding that freezing does not kill this virus, but I will look for the original source of that tidbit of information and have another look.

Regarding the fact that well cooked chicken is safe to eat, do we serve it at the wake for the cook? I personally do not want to touch anything that deadly. Would I want my teenager working at any fast food chain that served it? No.
Better overkill than being killed.

It is outrageous that the chicken and pork were not tested. I also think that is highly unlikely, otherwise what is the point of the raid? It is also outrageous that it wasn't made public sooner to warn consumers.