Contaminated Chinese seafood is the latest high-profile export turning American consumers off their feed, but they might want to save some caution for Dominican produce and Danish candy, FDA stats suggest. Inspectors stopped more food shipments from India and Mexico than from China in the past year, the Times reports, and the flood of imports is overtaxing the agency's enforcement system.
The agency scrutinizes just 1% percent of the imports flooding across the borders and has rejected everything from pepper to lollipops since last July. A 2003 plan that would have overhauled the system fell victim to a budget pinch, and a former agency bigwig couldn’t emphasize the shortcomings enough: “These guys are going to war without enough troops.” (More FDA stories.)