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by spwa4 9 days ago
Wasn't the EU fresh from a scandal that they voted all sorts of laws, sued lots of EU companies, and then allowed Chinese companies to import lots of stuff that obviously violated all those laws for 20+ years?

From safety regulations to baby toys with lead paint.

The EU will probably do nothing again.
2 comments
throwaway67678 9 days ago
When it comes to safety regulations as with everything else, some countries do not succeed, others do not try
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Saline9515 9 days ago
The EU has allowed large scale imports of chinese fake honey for the last 20 years.

All of the beekeeper associations complain about it, regularly conduct lab tests with honeys from supermarkets, most of them being not honey, or mixed with fake honey.

The EU of course has done nothing : the beekeepers aren't powerful enough to distribute the right bribes to the right people. Meanwhile the consumers buy glucose syrup at 15€/kg.

But hey, we have USB-C! It evenS out, right?

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Hikikomori 9 days ago
Its up to individual countries to do it no? They've been testing honey here recently and several brands got removed from stores.
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Saline9515 9 days ago
No, it's up to the EU to stop imports from China. It's not possible for individual countries to do it:

- Lab testing is complex, requires to identify the DNA of pollens in honey and few countries can do it at the moment.

- Honeys are mixed, so it's trivial to receive fake honey in a country that allows it, mix it, and reexport to another one that forbids it. Same happens with olive oils, no one cares.

- Many brands just lie, given that there is no enforcement regarding food traceability and safety in general in the EU (it's a meme to reassure consumers). Where I live a brand advertising "locally made honey" was found to sell glucose syrup : nothing happened.

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Hikikomori 9 days ago
Does the EU have a centralized food testing agency?
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Saline9515 9 days ago
It does have a food safety agency, but this is a classic international trade problem that is solved at the border since the EU is a trade union.
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spwa4 9 days ago
Or in this case - purposefully NOT solved.

Who wants to bet "Mercosur" agricultural products won't be checked at the border and will - surprise - turn out to have "issues". Has the forced labor agriculture in South America been solved yet?

Nope: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_trafficking_in_South_Ame...

I guess not. Will the EU check? Hah!

Has nature protection been solved yet?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deforestation_in_Brazil

Nope. Will the EU check? Hah!

The EU makes their companies to compete against slavery. First in China, religious-ethnic slavery. Now in South America, also mostly ethnic slavery.

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Hikikomori 9 days ago
That's what the individual countries are supposed to do.
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