Europe Worries about Health Hazards of Cheap Food from China

Know where your peanut products come from?  Children fall victim to bad food because too few parents ask that question. Why? Should parents be concerned? 

Peanut/Salmonella and Fungal Meningitis outbreak worry USA, while:  
Europe Worries about Health Hazards of Cheap Food from China

Many Germans only realized how much of the food on their plates is harvested and produced in China when thousands of schoolchildren in eastern Germany were afflicted with diarrhea and vomiting two weeks ago in an epidemic thought to have been triggered by Chinese strawberries contaminated with norovirus.

Read more: http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/europe-worries-about-health-hazards-of-cheap-food-from-china-a-861406.html

Children are more likely to be poisoned and injured more severely by bad food, food additives, and food products because of their size and that they eat more per pound than adults.  For infants and young children the cost of bad food may result in permanent injuries and death.  As the above article illustrates, imported food can be tainted with laced with dangerous levels of pesticides, fertilizers, hormones, antibiotics, and foreign and toxic chemicals. 

How can parents tell if food or food served by eateries are safe for their children?  Should they be informed if the food came from countries, like China, known to export tainted food?   Zhou notes in the article above

that farmers used to eat the same foods they sold. But now that they are aware of the harmful effects of pesticides, fertilizers, hormones and antibiotics, they still produce a portion of their farm products for the market and a portion for their own families.

Some thoughts for discussion:

• The cost of food is ever escalating.  Parents are increasingly turning to cheaper food or eating in cheaper eateries to feed their family.  But is the cost savings worth the price of injury or killing our children? 
• Consumers, including parents, and restaurant owners do not know where the food was grown or farmed.  When questioned, they may look on the label, but sometimes after having served the food to children.  What is the best way for consumers to know the origin of food, food additives, and food sources?
• Should restaurant owners that cater to children be held to stricter government regulations?  
• Do regulations insure safer food if taxpayers do not insist and persist that their government provide funding for oversight and  enforcement?