Business

‘Made in China’ upsetting the global food chain

(Illustration via Uninova.)

The “Made in China” label is getting a bad rap, in light of all the recent food scares coming out of the country. And now, marketers at foreign food and drug brands are taking advantage of consumer fears by emphasizing how their products are NOT made in China.

“NOT Made In China“
BusinessWeek
July 30, 2007
By John Carey

• Swiss ingredient maker DSM Nutritional Products launched a “premium” Vitamin C at more than double the price for bulk Vitamin C, and it’s been flying off the shelves, which is due in no small part to its emphasis on “quality, reliability and traceability.” “With our plant located in the green hills of Scotland,” the company says, “we are the only western vitamin C producer and we offer the world’s premium range of pure vitamin C forms.”
• Upscale New York grocery Fairway reassures consumers that none of its seafood is Chinese. From the company Web site: “We pay serious attention to the fact that WHERE a fish was caught, HOW it was caught and WHEN it was caught is at least as important as how it is best cooked.”
• IBM is pushing systems to trace the food supply from source to market.
• Specialty dog food producer Freshpet tripled its sales after getting rid of overseas ingredients. “Our meats are all fresh, never frozen or preprocessed prior to cooking and all of our ingredients are locally sourced from the US using stringent quality standards.”

With today’s global food supply, however, eliminating every particle from China is impossible for most major food companies. Even a simple product like a cereal bar contains ingredients from India, the Philippines–and China, which now supplies the bulk of the world’s vitamins, apple juice, and other goods. “I think most people are surprised by the diversity of the sources,” says ingredient consultant Peter Kovacs.

(See this graphic, “The Global Food Supply Chain.”)

So what do you think? How can China link back into the chain?

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