An alert has been issue to parents who feed their children apple juice – a kid favorite. America exports its toxic agricultural chemicals to countries like China, and then imports foods that are produced with the chemicals. The result, as found by the Washington D.C.-based consumer group Food and Water Watch (F&WW), is that arsenic has been found in Mott’s Apple Juice at 55 parts per billion (ppb), well in excess of what is allowed in public drinking water (10 parts per billion) in the U.S.
F&WW is asking Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Margaret Hamburg to establish levels for heavy metals in apple juice, largely consumed by children. What’s frightening is that 70 percent of the apple juice imported in the country comes from the People’s Republic of China, a country with little to no environmental standards, according to F&WW. Arsenic is used as an insecticide in farming in China. The FDA inspects less than two percent of imported foods.
F&WW began drawing attention to potential dangers of foods from China last month, especially juice, candy, and canned fruit consumed by American children. According to the group, China’s food exports to the U.S. have tripled over the past decade to nearly 4 billion pounds of food in 2010 with a value of $5 billion. Even an investigation by The St. Petersburg Times last year found Motts, Apple & Eve Organics, and Walmart’s Great Value apple juice had between 25 and 35 ppb of arsenic, above the 23 ppb level that the FDA had previously expressed as a level of concern.
Sources: http://www.foodsafetynews.com/2011/07/arsenic-laced-apple-juice-flowing-from-china/ and http://www.tampabay.com/news/health/article1079395.ece
