Programs to Combat Harmful Imports

In a year of recalled and tainted imported goods including toys and pet food Americans now can add seafood to their list of dangerous imported items.

 Though 80 percent of seafood sold in the country is imported, the Food and Drug Administration inspects and tests less than 1 percent of it once it arrives. When the FDA does inspect the food, it frequently finds the fish is unhealthy and filled with banned chemicals, making it unhealthy for consumers.

 A federal panel will recommend today that the Bush administration issue sweeping regulatory reforms.

 And imported seafood will likely be high on the list of potentially dangerous items it discusses.

 States taking charge
Alabama is one of a few states that have relied less on the federal government and have come up with their own comprehensive state inspection programs.

 Alabama rejects 50 percent to 60 percent of all fish imports.

 Lab tests routinely detect antibiotics, which are banned for use in food in the United States. Some foreign countries use the antibiotics to treat fish raised in crowded conditions, where bacteria, viruses and parasites can breed.

One of the things often found in imported fish is a fungicide called malachite green, which is illegal to use in food in the United States because studies show it can causes cancer and birth defects.

Lab testers said even when farmers in nations like China have shipment rejected for an illegal chemical, they simply switch to another harmful chemical.

 "They know it's illegal. They know it hurts people, but they do it anyway," said Joe Basile, of the Alabama Department of Agriculture.

 But not all states have such a vigorous program like Alabama's so even some stores have taken extra steps to protect consumers.

Retail giant Wal-Mart, for one, says it is working directly with shrimp farms in Thailand to clean them up and ensure imported shrimp in its stores are safe.

 But, a consumer safety advocate said the FDA has not done enough to protect consumers.

 "Consumers may be getting a dose of antibiotics with their seafood dinner and that's something the government should stop," said Caroline Smith Dewaal, of the Center for Science and Public Interest.

 Washington's response
The White House says it will announce 14 short- and long-term fixes, including giving the Consumer Product Safety Commission the power to inspect foreign factories.

 Currently, the commission can't get involved until products reach U.S. ports. Also, the FDA would get the authority to issue mandatory recalls. Right now the agency must negotiate voluntary recalls with manufacturers, which can be a time-consuming process.

 And the White House also will propose creating a government certification program in which the FDA and commission would give their stamps of approval to products that meet certain safety and quality standards.

 Increasing the fines that companies pay when their products put consumers at risk is part of the plan.

 Of course, congressional Democrats have proposed import legislation of their own. And some see the administration's announcements as a signal the two sides will be able to work together to bring about changes. – ABC

CHABLIS, France - Global warming may turn out to be the undoing of the human race, but as long as there are still plateaux de fruits de mer to be devoured in the corner brasserie, there's an upside: how the weather's changing Chablis.

Village Chablis, lustrous, minerally and racy yet delicate, has always been textbook-perfect with oysters on the half-shell, but a little too steely for the sweet meat of lobsters and crab. But as the world heats up and vintages yield riper grapes and richer wines, more and more of the cru sites of Chablis, one of France's most northerly appellations, are producing wines with just enough ripeness and richness to work with everything on the plateau -- lobsters and Dungeness crab and mussels and sea snails and, yes, oysters.

Chablis is less than 100 miles from the outskirts of Paris, and it has traditionally been thought of as pushing the outer limit of where wine grapes can fully ripen. In some vintages, they simply don't: The region is routinely threatened with every potential cool-climate disaster -- frost, rain, hail and freezes . In recent years, however, climate changes have drawn this very marginal place away from the margins. Growers are now blessed with warmer, shorter growing seasons, and weather threats are rarer.

In some vintages, the character of the wines has changed too. Warmer weather means riper fruit, more ample textures and generally richer wines. "The most obvious change," says Véronique Drouhin, "is that the harvest comes earlier." Drouhin and her brother Philippe are both scions to the great Burgundy négociant house Domaine Joseph Drouhin -- Véronique as winemaker, Philippe as vineyard manager -- and have been watching the weather for more than 20 years. They say that the effects of changes in climate patterns, while rampant in all of Burgundy, are most extreme in Chablis: Harvest in their father's time used to occur in October; now mid-September is the norm, and August is not unheard of.
 
That taste of minerals
Chablis sits at the edge of a great geological formation known as the Kimmeridgian Chain, a layer of limestone marl, some of which is composed the skeletons of trillions of sea creatures -- a formation that stretches from England to Champagne, Burgundy, and the eastern Loire Valley in France.

As a result, Chardonnay from Chablis is fantastically mineral; that soil element, with its aromas of flint and wet stones, combined with classic, cool climate acidity, results in a mouth-feel that's almost impossibly attenuated, delicate and refined.

The great character-defining sites in Chablis have been designated grand cru or premier cru, and are typically situated on hillsides composed primarily of this limestone marl. But they've also been the warmest sites, the ones with the best exposure and best orientation to the sun -- the best chance for ripeness in a challenging environment. In an appellation where "richness" is a relative term, wine from the cru sites have always been the most ample. Wines from sites with poorer exposure tended to be less ripe and remain tense and steely.

But longer heat waves, notes Véronique, have evened the playing field somewhat. "It's more extreme," she says, "either very warm for a long time or very cool for a long time." Although she thinks this may lead to more even ripening, it may, she says, come at a price for complexity, particularly in the retention of acid. For some wines, this means that the balance is starting to teeter.

Tasting these wines, you get an object lesson in how acids and minerals interact. In cool weather vintages such as 2004, the wines fairly pulsate with energy; there's a nervous quality to the texture, a whippet's jittery grace. The acidity and minerality are working in such harmony that it's very hard to separate the two. Comparing the 2004 vintage of premier cru "Vaillons" from Jean Collet with the 2005, for example, leaves little doubt as to which is the cooler vintage; the 2005 is a riper wine redolent of quince and golden apples, while the 2004 is still lime-scented and tight as a drum, even though it's a year older.

Suddenly there's fruit to speak of. In Chablis wines in "normal" vintages such as 2004 that's a component that may scarcely have been mentioned in your average tasting note. The few 2006s I was able to taste were wonderfully exuberant and lively in their youth. Their fruit is attentive and forward; it more than accommodates the wine's newfound amplitude.

Ripening under a strict eye
It used to be that a Chablis grower's only concern was achieving full ripeness. Now, to maintain classic Chablis' elegance, it's necessary to guard against overripeness. That means slowing down the growth cycle in the vineyard. "I have to pay attention now to not exposing the grapes too much in the sun," says Michel Laroche, who just completed his 40th vintage in Chablis. "I used to pull leaves on the shadow side of the trellis. I still do that, but I pull less leaves than I used to and sometimes not anymore."

"We're certainly producing a style of wine that's a little richer, more opulent," Laroche admits, but he's quick to add that he doesn't see this as a problem. Chablis' greatest 20th century vintages, after all, were its warmest. "When you look back at the history of the vintages, always the good years had the warm summers. The famous vintages -- 1947, 1966, 1989 -- all these summers were very hot."

"Even if it's true that we're ripening earlier," says Philippe Drouhin, "closer to the rest of Burgundy, the wines here will still be higher in acidity and lower in sugar content than the Côte d'Or. You don't lose typicity unless you let the fruit get too ripe. Overripe Chardonnay is still uncommon in Chablis. That's more a decision of the winemaker."

For the moment, says Laroche, warmer vintages can be managed in the winery in a variety of ways. For example, he can modulate the wine's perceived acidity by changing his fermentations in the cellar -- in particular, he's cut back on his malolactic fermentations, retaining more crisp, appley malic acids and restricting the broader lactic acids that tend to round out a wine's texture. And he has adopted screw-caps for all of his wines, to help with their longevity. – Los Angeles Times