Chinese import alert widens

USA TODAY, May, 2007 by Elizabeth Weise and Julie Schmit

The Food and Drug Administration is enforcing a new import alert that greatly expands its curtailment of some food ingredients imported from China, authorizing border inspectors to detain ingredients used in everything from noodles to breakfast bars.

The restriction, the latest impact of the pet food contamination that has killed cats and dogs across the USA, may create delays in the delivery of raw ingredients for production of many products used by people.

And for the first time, the FDA has disclosed that it has received reports, which it has yet to confirm, that as many as 1,950 cats and 2,200 dogs died after eating food made with tainted ingredients from China. The FDA has confirmed thus far 14 pet deaths.

The alert reflects the FDA's unease with what the alert announcement called China's "manufacturing control issues" and the agency's inability to ascertain what controls are in place ...