Lead loaded candy recalled in California
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Photo of recalled candy courtesy California Department of Public Health
Is the United States so bereft of candy makers that it must import poison?
What a way to start the new year. One of the lead stories in the Los Angeles Daily News for Jan. 1, 2010, is the recall of tainted candy imported from Mexico and China.
California’s Department of Public Health warned consumers to not eat Ticorindo Candy from Mexico and Chen PiMei Candy imported from China.
The health department found unacceptable levels of lead in both candies, said Mark Horton, state public health director.
Lead levels in both contained as much as .14 parts per million of lead; anything more than .10 parts per million is considered unsafe and unacceptable, Horton said.
Locally, Ticorindo is sold at Dollar Mar stores and comes packaged in clear plastic with “Ticorindo” printed in bright red and yellow letters on the packages.
Likewise, Chen PiMei comes in clear plastic bags printed with a large green rectangle that contains Chinese Characters and the name of the candy.
The California agency said it is working with the distributors of the two candy brands to remove them from store shelves.
I was really hard-pressed whether to define this as a “health” or a “crime” story because to allow the importation of tainted candy, any food product, medications, medication binding powders, toys or jewelry into the country from suspect countries is criminal.
Like terrorists who still manage to slip aboard planes with explosives in their pants, shoes or body cavities, poisonous food and other toxic products still manage to sneak into the country in spite of precautions.
What’s galling and unforgivable is government officials, with full knowledge that neither Mexico nor China adhere to the same consumer safety laws that our manufacturers must follow still allow the importation of any food product from either country.
Is the United States so bereft of candy makers that it must import poison?
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And really, Sandy, given the deaths due to imported heparin and all the food born illnesses in the U.S., wouldn't we see some major policy changes by now? The lack of progress on this is pretty amazing.
Both are equally detrimental to our health, and they don't give a damn. Better to make Americans deathly ill than to step on the toes of a few despotic countries that they want to do business with.
Without eating their toxic candy, both make me ill!
We run risks whenever we allow foreign food through our border, and contaminated food is always a danger to consider. But as long as health officials alert us to problems before they become unmanageable, I think parents and consumers are warned in time.
many usually have to get sick before a problem is spotted, like with the e-coli spinach, lettuce and so much more we were 'blessed' with from mexico.
We run risks whenever we allow foreign food through our border, and contaminated food is always a danger to consider. But as long as health officials alert us to problems before they become unmanageable, I think parents and consumers are warned in time.
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