Home Theater Forum  ›  Forums  ›  Other Diversions  ›  After Hours Lounge  ›  More than 50% of Apple Juice comes from China?
Forum Nav More Forums | All New Posts | New Thread

More than 50% of Apple Juice comes from China?

#1
Rating: 0
8/3/07 at 10:50am
  • Joined: May 2000
  • Location: + 1,021 lost posts
  • Post Count: 836
http://www.cnn.com/2007/LIVING/wayof...ref=newssearch

Quote from article:
"Some of the food products that come from China may surprise you. Take an American staple like apple juice. The USDA says 50 percent of the apple juice imported in the United States today comes from China. That's an estimated 161,000 tons of apple juice compared to the 110,000 tons produced in the United States, according to the USDA."

That's scary. A product you always think of as healthy, that you feed to your kids comes from China and you have no way of knowing. Who knows what they spray on the apples and how sanitary their production process is.

Looking at a bottle of Motts AJ there is nothing stating where it comes from on the label or the bottle.

Am I just paranoid?
Export to Wiki
#2
Rating: 0
8/3/07 at 11:30am
  • Joined: January 2002
  • Post Count: 2,233

Re: More than 50% of Apple Juice comes from China?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Marianne
Am I just paranoid?

No.
We only buy TreeTop because it's supposed to be from WA state apples.

And you believe, at heart, everyone's a killer...
Export to Wiki
#3
Rating: 0
8/3/07 at 11:42am
  • Joined: October 1998
  • Location: Boise ID
  • Post Count: 7,206

Re: More than 50% of Apple Juice comes from China?

Looks like it's safer to drink wine than apple juice these days. [Wine region of origin labeling laws are strictly enforced.]

Feline videophiles Susie and Dukie.

Export to Wiki
#4
Rating: 0
8/3/07 at 11:45am
  • Joined: March 2002
  • Post Count: 3,739

Re: More than 50% of Apple Juice comes from China?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Dennis Nicholls
Looks like it's safer to drink wine than apple juice these days. [Wine region of origin labeling laws are strictly enforced.]
Well, thats always been true. Until the late 19th century alcohol was safer to drink than water.

"Did you know that more people are murdered at 92 degrees Fahrenheit than any other temperature? I read an article once. Lower temperatures, people are easy-going, over 92 and it's too hot to move, but just 92, people get irritable."

Export to Wiki
#5
Rating: 0
8/3/07 at 11:51am
  • Joined: May 2000
  • Location: + 1,021 lost posts
  • Post Count: 836

Re: More than 50% of Apple Juice comes from China?

Another quote from the article:
"You know where your sneakers come from but not your food."

Maybe producers who do not use any ingredients from China should start stating that on their labels.
Export to Wiki
#6
Rating: 0
8/3/07 at 3:05pm
  • Joined: May 2002
  • Post Count: 6,931

Re: More than 50% of Apple Juice comes from China?

I wonder though - even if the apples come from the U.S., this doesn't mean they weren't shipped overseas to be made into juice...

He was one of those people who would be neither a follower nor a leader, but only an aspiring heart, impatient in the failing body which imprisoned it. -- T. H. White, "The Once and Future King"

Export to Wiki
#7
Rating: 0
8/3/07 at 4:33pm
  • Joined: April 2000
  • Post Count: 1,997

Re: More than 50% of Apple Juice comes from China?

Who says that all food from other countries (including the US) isn't harmful? Heck, we can't even grow spinach properly...

Greg
My DVD Collection

Export to Wiki
#8
Rating: 0
8/4/07 at 9:08am
  • Joined: May 2000
  • Location: + 1,021 lost posts
  • Post Count: 836

Re: More than 50% of Apple Juice comes from China?

Greg, you can always use that argument of course, but I would prefer to get food from a country that has similar standards to the US and other developed countries for food that they supply to their own people.

US apple growers have to comply with all the regulations regarding chemicals used, etc. Then they have to compete with China where they don't have the same regulations, or they ignore them. No wonder Chinese produce is cheaper.

If the consumer knows where most other products come from, and can make decisions based on that knowledge, why not with food.

Cameron, I don't think that shipping apples to China would be cost effective. Just Google "China apple producers" and you will see that China is now the largest apple producer in the world.
Export to Wiki
#9
Rating: 0
8/4/07 at 9:49am
  • Joined: May 2002
  • Post Count: 6,931

Re: More than 50% of Apple Juice comes from China?

Quote:
Cameron, I don't think that shipping apples to China would be cost effective. Just Google "China apple producers" and you will see that China is now the largest apple producer in the world.
I've been surprised many times by what actually gets outsourced, so I was kind of bracing myself for the shock that juice production gets done overseas too!

He was one of those people who would be neither a follower nor a leader, but only an aspiring heart, impatient in the failing body which imprisoned it. -- T. H. White, "The Once and Future King"

Export to Wiki
#10
Rating: 0
8/4/07 at 10:04am
  • Joined: June 2000
  • Location: Colorado
  • Post Count: 7,522

Re: More than 50% of Apple Juice comes from China?

Read more of the article, which defeated my point. Careless of me.


They flutter behind you, your possible pasts.
Some bright-eyed and crazy, some frightened and lost.
Export to Wiki
#11
Rating: 0
8/4/07 at 11:43am
  • Joined: February 2007
  • Location: west coast of florida
  • Post Count: 897

Re: More than 50% of Apple Juice comes from China?

I honestly don't care where my food comes from.

"Bobby is and idiot"
Export to Wiki
#12
Rating: 0
8/4/07 at 5:10pm
  • Joined: March 2002
  • Post Count: 3,739

Re: More than 50% of Apple Juice comes from China?

Quote:
Originally Posted by bobbyg2
I honestly don't care where my food comes from.
The voice of America.

"Did you know that more people are murdered at 92 degrees Fahrenheit than any other temperature? I read an article once. Lower temperatures, people are easy-going, over 92 and it's too hot to move, but just 92, people get irritable."

Export to Wiki
#13
Rating: 0
8/4/07 at 5:23pm
  • Joined: February 1999
  • Post Count: 1,132

Re: More than 50% of Apple Juice comes from China?

^^ Unfortunate truth.

I, on the other hand, care a great deal about who produces my food.

Especially after reading the eating cardboard off the floor sidewalk vendors in China. No cardboard pulp for me thank you.
Export to Wiki
#14
Rating: 0
8/4/07 at 6:57pm
  • Joined: June 2000
  • Location: Colorado
  • Post Count: 7,522

Re: More than 50% of Apple Juice comes from China?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Garrett Lundy
The voice of America.
I hope not. After all, this is an individual who decided he was going to build boxes, put an "air hole" in them, install really big drivers (no reason to use crossovers even), sell them for a mint and become a tycoon, then started a thread, in the past tense, about doing it.


They flutter behind you, your possible pasts.
Some bright-eyed and crazy, some frightened and lost.
Export to Wiki
#15
Rating: 0
8/4/07 at 9:13pm
  • Joined: February 2007
  • Location: west coast of florida
  • Post Count: 897

Re: More than 50% of Apple Juice comes from China?

Quote:
Originally Posted by JohnRice
I hope not. After all, this is an individual who decided he was going to build boxes, put an "air hole" in them, install really big drivers (no reason to use crossovers even), sell them for a mint and become a tycoon, then started a thread, in the past tense, about doing it.

I think you've announced that enough already.

Anyways, let me rephrase that. I really don't WANT to know where it comes from. If I like it, and I'm hungry, than I'll eat it.

"Bobby is and idiot"
Export to Wiki
#16
Rating: 0
8/6/07 at 6:37am
  • Joined: May 2000
  • Location: + 1,021 lost posts
  • Post Count: 836

Re: More than 50% of Apple Juice comes from China?

Checked out the labels for different types of Motts Apple Juice.

Motts Natural Fresh Pressed 100% Apple Juice label states:
100% US Grown Apples

None of their other types of AJ carry this statement. All of them were the same price.

Also checked Motts "Natural Apple Sauce & Vitamin C" (6-pack). If you look at the pull tab on the lids you will either see:

Mott's LLP, Rye Brook, NY 10573, USA 0784859

OR:

Mott's Inc, Stamford, CT 06905-0800, Product of USA, 780280D.

I guess this means that some of it is produced in China and some in the US.
Export to Wiki
#17
Rating: 0
8/6/07 at 4:20pm
  • Joined: October 2003
  • Post Count: 582

Re: More than 50% of Apple Juice comes from China?

Martinelli's is "100% pure apple juice from U.S. grown fresh apples."
Export to Wiki
#18
Rating: 0
8/6/07 at 5:47pm
  • Joined: July 1997
  • Location: Amsterdam, Holland
  • Post Count: 16,286

Re: More than 50% of Apple Juice comes from China?

Quote:
Product of USA
Hmmm. Could also mean that the product was legally obtained by a party residing in the USA, from an outside party.

Shoes of Cees Alons. Jacket of Cees Alons. Tie of Cees Alons. DVD-player of Cees Alons.
None of them manufactured or grown by Cees Alons.


Cees
HTF Rules (uhm ... and has Rules)
Export to Wiki
#19
Rating: 0
8/7/07 at 7:51am
  • Joined: May 2000
  • Location: + 1,021 lost posts
  • Post Count: 836

Re: More than 50% of Apple Juice comes from China?

You mean it might be counterfeit?
Export to Wiki
#20
Rating: 0
8/7/07 at 8:03am
  • Joined: January 2004
  • Post Count: 472

Re: More than 50% of Apple Juice comes from China?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Don Solosan
Martinelli's is "100% pure apple juice from U.S. grown fresh apples."

That might mean that the grow them in the US, ship them to China to be juiced and ship the juice back.

On a side note. This week-end, we threw away all of our sons toys that were made in China. He stick some of those in his mouth and after reading this.

http://www.reuters.com/article/busin...rpc=23&sp=true

into the bin they all went. Fortunately, he's only 10 months old and so not particularly attached to any the toys we chucked out. The only toy he really is attached to was mercifully made in Canada.
Export to Wiki
#21
Rating: 0
8/7/07 at 12:42pm
  • Joined: October 2003
  • Post Count: 582

Re: More than 50% of Apple Juice comes from China?

"That might mean that the grow them in the US, ship them to China to be juiced and ship the juice back."

According to their website, Martinelli's apples are organically grown, the processing is done at two U.S. sites (one in CA, don't know about the other one) which are coded on the bottles, and the product is approved kosher. So in this case, I don't think so.

As for the toys you threw out, were they all painted? It seems the article was mainly about lead content of paint.
Export to Wiki
#22
Rating: 0
8/7/07 at 1:07pm
  • Joined: January 2004
  • Post Count: 472

Re: More than 50% of Apple Juice comes from China?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Don Solosan
"That might mean that the grow them in the US, ship them to China to be juiced and ship the juice back."

According to their website, Martinelli's apples are organically grown, the processing is done at two U.S. sites (one in CA, don't know about the other one) which are coded on the bottles, and the product is approved kosher. So in this case, I don't think so.

As for the toys you threw out, were they all painted? It seems the article was mainly about lead content of paint.

Apparently, they were using lead paint to color the plastic itself. The most concerning thing is that a plastic bath toy, which didn't look or feel 'painted' was running. If you handled it for a while, you got red and yellow stains on your hands.

It's not the first time this has been a problem with China. There was a massive toy jewlery recall at one point and a browse round pubmed finds several case reports of researchers tracking down a source of lead poisoning to be a Chinese plastic toy.

I found a bunch of disturbing facts about Chinese toys, the level of lead poisoning of children in China and America, and lots of concern among health professionals.

They were talking about it on NPR. The conclusion of their investigation was that China lacks a decent safety regulatory body and that the American companies doing the importing are doing very little to enforce any standards. When we thought about it that way, it's like buying toys that are not subject to any safety standards. So we've just banned all Chinese toys.

It's like a one household trade war.
Export to Wiki
#23
Rating: 0
8/7/07 at 1:37pm
  • Joined: July 1997
  • Location: Amsterdam, Holland
  • Post Count: 16,286

Re: More than 50% of Apple Juice comes from China?

To be fair: the Chinese didn't "invent" those yellow lead dyes. Or used them on purpose knowing the bad effects.
Other countries used them too. It was believed that in "normal use" the dye wouldn't leave the plastic.

At a certain point, when those bad effects were discovered, it got forbidden to use it (toys, beer-crates, etc.). Apparently, some Chinese firms (and perhaps some others) didn't react as promptly as those in more controlled countries were forced to.


Cees
HTF Rules (uhm ... and has Rules)
Export to Wiki
#24
Rating: 0
8/7/07 at 3:28pm
  • Joined: November 2003
  • Post Count: 981

Re: More than 50% of Apple Juice comes from China?

As a kid I was always coaxed to eat all my dinner because there were other kids starving in China. Guess they're eating better now (but I doubt it)

Mort
Export to Wiki
#25
Rating: 0
8/8/07 at 7:09am
  • Joined: May 2000
  • Location: + 1,021 lost posts
  • Post Count: 836

Re: More than 50% of Apple Juice comes from China?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Cees Alons
At a certain point, when those bad effects were discovered, it got forbidden to use it (toys, beer-crates, etc.). Apparently, some Chinese firms (and perhaps some others) didn't react as promptly as those in more controlled countries were forced to.


That's my point, Cees. There is not enough oversight by many of the US companies who import items or food from China.
Export to Wiki
#26
Rating: 0
8/8/07 at 8:47am
  • Joined: March 2002
  • Post Count: 38

Re: More than 50% of Apple Juice comes from China?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Marianne
That's my point, Cees. There is not enough oversight by many of the US companies who import items or food from China.

Welcome to the lower cost, cheaper to produce, just trying to make a buck, Walmart America. American buyers need to look in the mirror, and until the majority of american buyers start putting their money where there mouth is, it's only going to get worse.

More oversight? We wouldn't be at this point if Joe American would buy items made/grown/produced in the US instead of looking at the price tag.
Export to Wiki
#27
Rating: 0
8/8/07 at 9:00am
  • Joined: May 2000
  • Location: + 1,021 lost posts
  • Post Count: 836

Re: More than 50% of Apple Juice comes from China?

I agree, Matt. The problem with food is that there is virtually no requirement for information on country of origin on labels. So it's difficult for the consumer to make that choice, even if they want to.
Export to Wiki
#28
Rating: 0
8/8/07 at 10:38am
  • Joined: March 2002
  • Post Count: 3,739

Re: More than 50% of Apple Juice comes from China?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Marianne
I agree, Matt. The problem with food is that there is virtually no requirement for information on country of origin on labels. So it's difficult for the consumer to make that choice, even if they want to.
Strange example: Kobe Beef. Wagyu cattle are bred&fed in America, shipped over on the boat, dispatched & graded, then shipped back via Airplane and sold as Japanese. Japan only requires that the cows are butchered in the region to get the official 'Kobe' stamp.

"Did you know that more people are murdered at 92 degrees Fahrenheit than any other temperature? I read an article once. Lower temperatures, people are easy-going, over 92 and it's too hot to move, but just 92, people get irritable."

Export to Wiki
#29
Rating: 0
8/8/07 at 12:09pm
  • Joined: March 2002
  • Post Count: 38

Re: More than 50% of Apple Juice comes from China?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Marianne
I agree, Matt. The problem with food is that there is virtually no requirement for information on country of origin on labels. So it's difficult for the consumer to make that choice, even if they want to.

Just playing the other side, but COO labeling is hard to pin down. Example, beef in this country comes primarly from within the US, but it is also imported from Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Uruguay, Australia, etc... A COO label will be on the box in the back of the store, but will the butchers get the right label on the product in the case properly? What about ground beef, it may be ground in the store, but it may include some trim from other sources, how do you label that?

It's hard problem to pin down. I believe that we have the safest food supply chain in the world, imported or not. With 300 mil people in this country, somebody, somewhere is going to get sick/die over the most mundane of products. The US is only about 4.5% of the world population, the other 95.5% must be doing something right when it comes to their food
Export to Wiki
#30
Rating: 0
8/10/07 at 5:11pm
  • Joined: October 2003
  • Post Count: 582

Re: More than 50% of Apple Juice comes from China?

Just saw an interesting one. A package of grapes with "produce of U.S." on one side of the label, and "produit of E.U." on the other.
Export to Wiki
Forum Nav More Forums | All New Posts | New Thread