Garlic: The international wonder

The garlic used by chef Frank Maragos at Foti's, in Culpeper, Va., comes from nearby Campi di Sogni Farm, where owner Juliana De Santis grows about 30 kinds.

But most of us buy garlic at the supermarket, rarely knowing what kind it is, how fresh it is, or where it was grown.

Few also know that that garlic may have come from China, which produces 75 percent of the world's supply and whose exports have come under scrutiny lately with the discovery of tainted pet food ingredients, toothpaste and more.

Garlic is our biggest fresh vegetable import from China, which shipped 138 million pounds of it, worth more than $70 million, to the U.S. last year. Smaller amounts also came from Mexico, Argentina and about 15 other countries.

Americans eat a lot of garlic - about three pounds per person a year.

Though most of our fresh garlic travels halfway around the world, it's cheaper than garlic grown in California. For example, California garlic bulbs were priced at $4.99 a pound at a D.C. Whole Foods market in mid-June. At the same time, a pack of five Chinese bulbs - about a pound - was just 79 cents at Great Wall supermarket in Falls Church, Va. The U.S. Department of Agriculture says garlic prices have dipped 12 percent in a decade.

California growers think that stinks, because it's killing their business. They grew 18,000 acres of garlic last year, about 2 percent of the world's garlic, and half what it was a decade ago.

In the early '90s, U.S. trade officials found that China was "dumping" garlic - selling it below what it cost to produce. A 377 percent tariff caused imports to dip for a time, until shippers found a loophole.

Some California growers and processors say that while they don't like Chinese garlic, they buy some because buying it is cheaper than growing it - even in Gilroy, the "Garlic Capital of the World," which later this monthwill hold its 29th annual festival celebrating the vegetable.

Bill Christopher, whose 50-year-old Christopher Ranch in Gilroy is one of the largest U.S. growers, explained: "A 30-pound box of Chinese garlic is $14. Our cost [to produce it] is $26.27."

Although he says California garlic tastes better (independent lab tests show it's denser in texture than Chinese garlic), his firm uses imports in some prepared products, such as sauce.

Like Christopher, John Layous of the Garlic Co. in Bakersfield, Calif., buys Chinese imports to keep costs low. He supplies Costco, Sam's Club and food-service firms. Layous rails against what he sees as China's unfair competitive advantage, saying his 185-person company pays good wages and has health and other benefits, unlike Chinese growers.

"Then there's expense to make a safe product," he says, referring to government food-safety regulations imposed on U.S. companies.

Fresh garlic isn't the only form of the vegetable causing concern. The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Foreign Agricultural Service says dehydrated Chinese garlic imports increased 384 percent in the last 10 years. Layous and others cite a 2002 report on garlic and garlic powder, domestic and imported, by a now-defunct coalition, Americans for Wholesome Food.

The report, using independent lab tests, found "high levels of lead, arsenic and added sulfites in two supermarket-brand imported garlic powders from store shelves."

Chinese imports in general have caused concern since U.S. pets got sick or died after eating food that contained wheat gluten spiked with melamine, a chemical used in fertilizers not approved for consumption, causing a massive pet-food recall. Then the Food and Drug Administration warned U.S. consumers not to use toothpaste made in China as it might contain a chemical used in antifreeze and as a solvent.

The FDA, responsible for inspecting some types of food from 130 countries, last year was deluged with 21 million shipments of food imports, including 199,000 from China worth about $2.3 billion. FDA inspectors refused 298 food shipments from China in the first four months of this year: catfish containing banned antibiotics, mushrooms contaminated with illegal pesticides, and others. The rejection rate for Chinese goods is about 25 times that of Canadian goods.

The FDA has 1,750 inspectors, but only 450 work at ports, notes William Hubbard, a former associate director of the agency. "There are 419 ports of entry by ship, air and land crosses," he says. "The FDA is able to staff 40 of them. Some [workers] are part-time."

Former FDA lawyer Michael Taylor says "hard data" on food safety are limited: "They have never been able to inspect more than 1 or 2 percent of shipments, and they test even fewer."

So how safe is garlic?

"Unless there's an import alert from FDA," says agency spokeswoman Kimberly Rawlings, food is considered safe.

The FDA said it could not provide information on detention and refusal rates of Chinese produce and how they compare to those of other countries. But FDA records show that since 1994, fresh and processed garlic has been targeted for automatic detention and surveillance. Numerous shipments from certain companies (five Chinese, one Canadian and one Argentine) were refused due to insects or insect damage, mold or filth between 1994 and 1996. The Canadian firm repacked Chinese garlic and shipped it, peeled, in five-pound jars.

Thirteen fresh garlic shipments from China were refused at California ports.

A Washington Post search of nearly 900 FDA "refusal actions" from May 2006 to April 2007 turned up 18 shipments of garlic products from several countries. Among rejections: from China, chili garlic sauce, because manufacturing information was not provided; from Canada, garlic paste, made in unsanitary conditions and inadequately labeled; from Argentina, "filthy" garlic bulbs. In May and July 2006, 13 shipments of garlic in mango, tomato and green chili sauces from India were refused, 11 because of pesticide residue.