Avoid the seafood. Currently the FDA is blocking imports of Chinese farm-raised catfish, bass, shrimp, dace (similar to carp) and eel while it waits for cleaner fish farms and better inspections. But concerns can go further than that. “I don’t eat shrimp from outside the country,” says Doyle, who notes that seafood-farming practices in most Southeast Asian countries include overcrowding, exposure to runoff from chicken farms and other opportunities for bacterial and antibiotic contamination. Seafood—fresh or frozen—is required to be labeled by country of origin, so it’s not hard to tell where it’s from.
Go for big brands. If an item is wholly produced and packaged in China, the label must reflect that. But foods packaged in the United States don’t have to have their ingredients individually labeled by country of origin, and that’s how Chinese fillers and seasonings can find their way into pet food and toddler snacks. It may help to look for big brand names, suggests Daniel Diermeier, of Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. Kovacs says major U.S. companies have redoubled their efforts to test all their Chinese-made ingredients.
Eat locally. Advocates of the local-food movement say that sticking to foods that come from within a day’s drive is good for the environment and healthier. Find community-supported farms and agricultural cooperatives at attra.ncat .org/attra-pub/localfood_dir.php. You still have to cook meats thoroughly and wash your hands: China doesn’t have a monopoly on bacteria.
Dig deeper. Make a habit of checking for problem foods and products at recall.gov, which keeps up with all U.S. recalls. Ask your grocer where your produce comes from, and push for more disclosure from manufacturers about their ingredients, even if you have to call the companies that make the products you eat most, says Caroline Smith DeWaal of the advocacy group Center for Science in the Public Interest, which keeps records of food threats at cspinet.org/foodsafety. You can also pick up some detective tricks from “A Year Without ‘Made in China’” ($24.95), a chronicle of author Sara Bongiorni’s efforts to spend a year boycotting Chinese products. Her conclusion: it’s not easy.
