trader joe's bans chinese products

Ah, the China-banning continues... Saw this over at Consumerist. Caving to xenophobia, food chain Trader Joe's has announced that it will no longer carry foods imported from China, due to concerns over the safety standards of such products. The grocer plans to phase out single-ingredient products from mainland China by January 1: Trader Joe's just says no to China. According to Trader Joe's statement:

"We feel confident that all of our products from China meet the same high quality standards that we set for all of our products," the statement read. "However, our customers have voiced their concerns about products from this region and we have listened.

"We will continue to source products from other regions until our customers feel as confident as we do about the quality and safety of Chinese products."

The change apparently won't affect products containing multiple ingredients, of which some may be from China. Which, if you're truly concerned
about health and safety standards, is rather stupid. As Consumerist points out, this move isn't going to do a whole lot to make food consumption safer. It's basically just caving to customer concerns, which seem overwhelmingly informed by the xenophobic hysteria over all things China.