Breakout Session D
Topic: "Crisis of Confidence in Chinese Food Exports: Its Causes, Effects, and a Practical Solution for Providing Customer Assurance"
Speaker: John S. Eldred, Keller and Heckman LLP

Abstract
For over four months there has been a crisis of confidence with respect to the safety and quality of Chinese food exports to the U.S. and elsewhere. John S. Eldred, a food law attorney with over 30 years’ experience in the field, will describe the several phenomena which came together to cause this crisis: a highly visible recall of pet food following a number of pet deaths, coupled with a media storm in which every regulatory difficulty with a Chinese food import received page one treatment in the press, both events allowing “China-bashers” in the U.S. to decry Chinese imports.

The effects are startling. Up to 80% of U.S. consumers feel that “made in China” means “may be contaminated.” U.S. food processors are fearful, many orders of Chinese raw materials have been cancelled and many more will not be placed unless the situation is remedied.

Mr. Eldred will offer his views that virtually no amount of government promises or certifications or inspections by the Chinese government will cause this problem to go away. Rather, only if exporters obtain independent evaluations of their products, backed up by independent laboratory analysis, will customers fees assured that they can buy Chinese goods with confidence.

Biography
John S. Eldred resides in China as Chief Representative of Keller and Heckman LLP's Shanghai Representative Office, which he founded in 2004. Having begun his career as a trial attorney in the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's Office of General Counsel, Mr. Eldred has spent more than twenty-five years advising clients with respect to the regulation in the United States of foods and food packaging, drugs, dietary supplements, medical devices, cosmetics, pesticides, consumer products, toys, and industrial and specialty chemicals. The expansion of Mr. Eldred's practice to Asia now includes giving advice regarding the local legal status of ingredients in products and packaging, the necessity for and means of obtaining pre-market clearance, the regulation of labeling, nutrition and health claims, advertising, hygiene and inspection requirements, import/export certifications, and the regulation of industrial and fine chemicals. Mr. Eldred also advises and represents food industry clients and chemical manufacturers with respect to the requirements of international government bodies such as the European Union, its Member States, and United Nations groups such as the Codex Alimentarius Commission.<back>