Food Tests Hold Up Asian Imports

Stacked two stories high at a food importer’s warehouse in Commerce are cardboard boxes filled with packets of rice vermicelli, cans of coconut milk and bottles of chili sauce -- ingredients as common in Southern California’s Asian community as mustard and ketchup in the American kitchen.

The products shipped into Southern California from Asia are worth $250,000 but are weeks, perhaps months, away from finding their way onto supermarket shelves and dining tables.

The food is caught up in a clash of cultures, pitting Los Angeles-based Asian food distributors against the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. In the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the FDA dramatically increased inspections of food shipped into the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, delaying the delivery of food to restaurants and markets.

The distributors say they are being unfairly targeted by inexperienced federal agents who don’t know the difference between dried shiitake mushrooms and bamboo shoots. The delays, they say, are costing them millions of dollars.

The stakes are high for both sides. Asian food accounted for approximately $3.3 billion of the $4.6 billion worth of food imported into the ports last year, according to U.S. Customs statistics. And the FDA is under greater pressure since 9/11 to secure the ports, the largest in the nation and the trading gateway to the Far East.

Although some Middle Eastern and Indian food importers have also complained about the stepped-up FDA inspections, foods from East Asia are particularly susceptible to scrutiny because some originate in countries with lax health standards and go through processes such as sun-drying that can increase chances of contamination.

“Asian people, by and large, love dried products,” said Charles Cardile, a consultant helping the importers. “Oysters, shiitakes, sharks’ fin, whatever. They lend themselves to some insect or filth. It’s an easy kill for the FDA.”

Cardile argues that such foods are rarely eaten raw and are usually washed before serving, a process that lessens the chance of contamination.

The FDA insists its inspectors are not targeting Asian distributors. They say that the ports of L.A. and Long Beach have rightfully become more closely guarded facilities in the post-9/11 environment with the addition of dozens of new agents.

“Our role has changed as the world has changed,” said Alonza Cruse, the FDA’s district director overseeing Southern California and Arizona. “We have to be more proactive to examine and review these products.... The mission and focus is on public health.”

In recent months, the importers have won the support of several politicians who represent the San Gabriel Valley, including Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Burbank) and Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-Los Angeles), who have urged the FDA to speed up their inspection process. The officials argue that the businesses don’t pose a major terrorist threat and that continued hold-ups in the distribution of food could lead to higher prices for consumers.

After six members of the Asian Food Trade Assn. met with Schiff and Cruse on March 15 to discuss the problems, their warehouses received unannounced joint inspections by the L.A. County Health Department and the FDA.

The agents demanded permits, which the members were all able to produce, according to distributors.

Cruse said the inspections had nothing to do with the meeting and that they would have occurred anyway.

A few weeks later, an FDA agent inspecting a warehouse in El Monte allegedly ordered an importer to destroy $250,000 worth of jellyfish, a delicacy usually eaten with roast meats during Chinese banquets. The inspector allegedly confused salt in the vacuum-sealed packets of jellyfish with dirt and then requested paperwork required for foodstuff stored in liquid, according to the importers.

Cardile and an aide from the office of Assemblywoman Judy Chu (D-Monterey Park) eventually persuaded the inspector to reverse her decision.

“Eventually, the higher costs are going to be passed down to the consumer,” said Denise Ng, Chu’s aide.

Containers carrying up to 40,000 pounds of Asian foods arrive at the ports daily. After being cleared by Customs and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the products are delivered to the distributors’ warehouses. But before the food can be sold to markets and stores, the FDA samples goods for defects.

According to the distributors, more of their products are being held for testing now than before 9/11. The testing can now take months, when it used to take only weeks, they said.

Jacklyn Sher, an importer based in Commerce, estimates that her family-owned business has lost $500,000 in sales this year, or 20% of its total revenue. Her company has responded to the hard times by making staff work weekends, omitting raises and bonuses and leaving some jobs unfilled.

On average, Sher said, 20% of her containers are being held up for inspection, compared with about 5% prior to 9/11. She recently had 20 containers held up in her 75,000-square-foot warehouse, each stocked with $20,000 to $30,000 worth of goods. The items have a shelf life of about one year. She said she had to destroy a shipment of pickled vegetables last year after the FDA held it for a year and a half.

An importer based in El Monte said he got into an argument with an FDA inspector six months ago after the agent allegedly wanted to confiscate his shipment of black fungus, an ingredient found in moo shu pork and sweet and sour soup. The importer explained that his fungus was from Taiwan, not China, which would have warranted an automatic detention. The importer said the agent then asked, “What’s the difference between China and Taiwan?”

Cruse, of the FDA, denied that his inspectors were being insensitive. He said agents are trained extensively and equipped to inspect foods of all national origins.

He said agents hold back food they suspect might not comply with federal standards and that the goal is simply to make sure people don’t get sick.

But for some food distributors, the wait is becoming costly. “We’re losing so much money, close to $100,000 since 9/11,” said a Commerce-based importer about his family-owned company, which has been in business for 20 years. Like many other importers, the man spoke on the condition of anonymity because he believed the FDA would retaliate against him.

“This stuff is supposed to go to the market,” he said while looking at the detained products, the equivalent of 10 shipping containers worth of food.