Quick food & product safety roundup

The media frenzy over imported food and product safety has died down a little, but of course the problem remains.  A few interesting tidbits:

• Cal Dooley, the president of the Grocery Manufacturers/Food Products Association, said last week that legislation to improve the safety of food imported into the United States would violate WTO rules and "create havoc at the border."  Kind of makes the whole point - about the WTO overreaching into domestic policy-making - for us quite nicely.
• A recent Gallup poll indicates that Americans are "likely to pay twice as much for U.S.-made merchandise than Chinese goods."
• The Center for Food Integrity (which, it should be noted, is a food industry front group) conducted a recent survey showing that food safety issues edged out nutrition as Americans' top concern regarding the food they eat.
• For the research wonks out there, the WTO has launched an online database of sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) notifications and documents, which deal with food, animal and plant health and safety.

And finally, here's a new old video clip, of our own Lori Wallach making a cameo appearance in a CNN segment on imported food safety.