Imported Ethnic Foods; Ethnic Fare, but Buyer BEWARE!

Not the happiest note, although when I was reading this article, it seemed eerily familiar. Hard to believe it was written in 1986. There are a few places I shop where the same is still true today.

Please be careful when you buy your ethnic groceries. Always be sure to check dates / expiration, and confirm storage temperatures. If something looks messy or wrong, don't buy it!

Imported ethnic foods; exotic fare but buyer beware
FDA Consumer , Dec-Jan, 1986 by Chris W. Lecos

The scene is a familiar one for anyone who has ever shopped in an ethnic food store. The shelves are stacked with a variety of exotic, packaged goods one would not find readily--if at all--in a huge, neat, fluorescent-lit supermarket, and many of the products are labeled in the same foreign language being spoken by the store's operators and most of its customers.

There is an unknown number of such stores in the United States today. Some have been in operation for decades--a legacy from immigrants who brought to this country their distinctive cultures, including their food preferences. Others are more recent, sprouting in urban areas populated by the waves of new immigrants from Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Latin America, and other areas.

Many of these stores are small, family-run operations. Their patrons are not only immigrants and their U.S.-born offspring, but also other Americans whose appetites and curiosity are whetted by the cuisines of foreign countries.

Until recently, ethnic food stores generally did not attract much attention from local health inspectors. No outbreaks of food poisoning that could be linked to the products sold there had ever been reported, and the number of customers was usually small, compared to supermarkets and other high-volume food stores.

Now, this is all changing. In a recent memorandum to state health officials, FDA's Division of Federal-State Relations warned that random inspections by the agency in various parts of the country had uncovered an "unacceptably high rate of defects" in many improted, packaged foods that were earmarked for sale through ethnic stores and restaurants. To protect the public from the potential health hazards those defects pose, FDA has developed a 10-point program that includes fostering federal-state efforts and increased surveillance by the agency itself of foods coming into this country.

Full Text of Article