The Chinese gluten/wheat is industrial espionage/sabotage

[NewJeffCT]

Since I have in-laws in China, I tend to follow stories about China a little more closely than most on DU.

In the 5 1/2 years I have had in-laws in China, I have seen several stories about incidents in restaurants where a competitor poisoned the clientele of a rival restaurant. Now, even if it is proven that the poisoner did it intentionally, I would imagine it would be very difficult for the victimized restaurant to survive, as they would likely be shut down for the course of the police investigation. And, would people really be lining up to go there after 40+ people just died there a week or two earlier?

From this, it does not take a Great Leap in logic to see something similar happening in another food-related industry: I think it is a case of industrial espionage/sabotage straight out of the laissez-faire days of American capitalism of the late 1800s.

If you are a rival factory that produces the same pet food that is being sold to a big foreign company, one way to quickly knock off a competitor would be to sneak a spy into their ranks and have them poison the food. Even if it was proven to be industrial espionage, do you think the big pet food company is going to use that factory again?

And, if you wanted to hurt Menu Foods, the poisoner has obviously succeeded. I am sure if they are a public company, their stock has taken a beating these past few weeks. If the company can avoid bankruptcy over this incident, they are going to have to retool their whole supply chain and spend years regaining public trust.

If it was an intentional poisoning, the person (or persons) behind the incident were obviously counting on negligent or corrupt enforcement in China coupled with lax and declining inspections of imported foods here in the US.



Here are a few stories I dug up in 5-10 minutes on google:

This story is about a restaurant in Nanjing, China – I remember it because that is where most of my in-laws live.

Nanjing was the capitol of short-lived republic they had in China from the early 1900s to the Japanese invasion in the 1930s. It's most famous for the "Rape of Nanking" during the Japanese invasion.
>>>>

NANJING, China -- Rat poison is the suspected cause of an outbreak of food poisoning in China, in which dozens of people are believed to have died.
"Initial investigations indicate there was rat poison in the food that was served to the victims," the China Daily quoted Zhou Qiang, a publicity official with the Jiangsu provincial government, as saying.

He said the poison could have been deliberately put into the food by someone, but public security authorities were still looking into the case that left hundreds of patrons of a small Nanjing store ill.

http://archives.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/asiapcf/east/09/15/china.poisoning/index.html


A bit more here:
>>>>

I have found several references to the active compound that produced
the poisoning near Nanjing (China). It seems the poisoning was
intentional -- done by a restaurant owner who was jealous of the
success of his cousin's business.

The product that caused the poisonings has been identified as a
popular tetramine rat poison marketed as "Du Shu Qiang," an official
at the Nanjing Military Region General Hospital said. Production of Du
Shu Qiang is banned in China, but the poison is widely used in rural
areas because of its low cost and high effectiveness, the Shanghai
Daily said on Tue 17 Sep 2002. As little as 5 milligrams of the
poison is enough to kill someone, a local doctor told the newspaper.
The active ingredient is "Tetramine; Tetramethylene Disulfotetramine."
A number of Chinese sites (i.e., in Chinese language) refer to the
product, but I cannot find any really good reference on the
English-language sites. It does not appear to be a common ingredient
in rat poison in the West.

http://www.bio.net/bionet/mm/toxicol/2002-September/003333.html


A story here refers to several poisoning incidents:
>>>>>

Abstract The last several years have seen a large number of mass poisonings in mainland China, particularly those caused by illicit rodenticides. One rat poison, tetramine (tetramethylene disulfotetramine) is responsible for a great percentage of death and injury in the People s Republic of China (PRC). Tetramine is an acutely toxic substance with human oral toxicity estimated as low as 0.1 mg/kg, and is widely available in open markets in mainland China—this despite being prohibited for manufacture or sale in the PRC. Being a GABA antagonist, and having an extremely potent effect on the brain stem, many victims can quickly fall into convulsions and die within hours following ingestion. With no known effective antidote at this time, clinical data from the PRC show that acute cases of tetramine poisoning are extremely difficult to treat. The widespread use of tetramine—including its reported sale at a Malaysian outdoor market in September 2002—could exacerbate its hazard to public health, particularly in those areas having large overseas Chinese populations.

http://www.springerlink.com/content/f0f1tentjnjx5wb5/


Another article on multiple food poisonings:

The Chinese media have reported recent surge of deliberate food-poisoning incidents around country involving rat poison. A man accused spiking food served by rival restaurant owner executed after 42 people died 300 others became ill after eating poisoned food on Sept. 14 Tangshan, Jiangsu province.
Earlier week, last 70 children two teachers poisoned on Nov. 25 kindergarten Wuchuan, Guangdong province, were released hospital. A doctor who ran another kindergarten jealous rival facility's success had snuck into kitchen put "Dushuqiang" in the salt, but fortunately those who fell ill were saved, Xinhua said on Dec. 9.

China's Ministry Health says received reports 104 "serious food-poisoning accidents" across country in first 10 months year

http://www.probeinternational.org/pi/index.cfm?DSP=content&ContentID=6146



This is from the BBC on poisoning incidents, including one in a school:
>>>

Correspondents say mass poisonings are not uncommon in China, and although most are due to negligence, some have been deliberate.

In August 2001, 120 people fell ill in a restaurant in Ningxiang, Hunan Province, after being poisoned by the owners of a noodle factory.
And there have been several cases of poisoning in schools in recent years.
Most recently, also in Hunan, 92 primary schoolchildren were stricken by poison in their lunch.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/2259718.stm


Another poisoning incident, but this one does not say rat poison or deliberate:
>>>

Over 80 people have been sickened after having dinner at a restaurant in Wuhai City in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region in the past week.
About 40 people are still in hospital and the restaurant has been

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2004-04/30/content_327814.htm