Last year was one of those times that many people grieve the loss of many babies and children. It was the time that the milk from China was discovered to have contain a dangerous chemical called melamine. Because of this shocking news, most people have avoided China products all together fearing that they might get poisoned or much worst, die from it.
Then a few weeks later after the discovery, an email circulated that you can tell products which ones are from China by reading a certain set of codes. They vertical lines with number translations at the bottom part which can be found in almost every product in the market. These codes are called barcodes. When you buy at the grocery stores, barcode scanners are used to get the product detail and price.
Anyway, thought the email hold true that barcodes really reveal products from which country they are from but it does not say where it was made. This means that milk produced in China but repacked in Singapore would reveal a different set of barcode. This certain milk product will have a barcode showing Singapore as its source. This also means that barcodes does not guarantee that products purchased are really from the country you are expecting it to be from.
So, how to avoid products that might be contaminated? Simple, just don’t buy processed food! I know that would be hard but to be honest processed food are unhealthy. They might be made “not” in China but because they are full of nitrates, they are bound to kill us one way or the other.
