Apple Juice Concentrate from China | update

To be fair, Knouse Foods is not the only company importing and or selling apple juice concentrate from China. A trip to my local Giant Food Store revealed that all of the brands selling 100% apple juice from concentrate indicated they contained juice from China (among other countries). Many other juice products contain apple juice concentrate but blends containing more than one type of juice were not labled as to the country of origin of it's contents.

 

Some questions I have for Knouse Food's President, Mr. Ken Guise are the following:

 

1) You say you test the concentrate before it is used in your products; do you test for poisonous chemicals and heavy metals?

 

2) Has anyone employed domestically by Knouse Foods ever been to China (or the other apple juice concentrate exporting countries) to see the orchards from which the concentrate comes and talk to the people who grow the fruit?

 

3) As a fruit buyer, what quality standards does Knouse Foods hold it's produce to when inspecting them prior to processing?

 

4) Your website boasts about how Knouse Foods actually won an award for exporting some of it's products to other countries. In an email I received from your customer service department, you indicated that due to high demand domestically, it was necessary to supplement our domestic supply with foreign concentrate. Please reconcile these statements for me.

 

5) Do you really serve juice concentrate from China to your own family?

 

Mr Guise, I hope things are changing for the better with all the bad news coming out China. I hope the average US consumer is beginning to care a little bit about where their food comes from. I, for one, am doing all I can:

 

1) initiating conversations with my friends, co-workers and family about why they should care about their food

2) buying (as much as possible) food grown and processed as close to my home as possible

3) growing as much of my own food in my garden as possible

 

OAO