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Is it just me… Or does this not feel right?

Your vitamin likely is from China

SHIJIAZHUANG, China

If you pop a vitamin C tablet in your mouth, it’s a good bet it came from China. Indeed, many of the world’s vitamins are now made in China.
In less than a decade, China has captured 90 percent of the U.S. market for vitamin C, driving almost everyone else out of business.
Chinese pharmaceutical companies also have taken over much of the world market in the production of antibiotics, analgesics, enzymes and primary amino acids. According to an industry group, China makes 70 percent of the world’s penicillin, 50 percent of its aspirin and 35 percent of its acetaminophen (often sold under the brand name Tylenol), as well as the bulk of vitamins A, B12, C and E.
In the wake of a pet-food scandal, in which adulterated wheat gluten from China led to the deaths of thousands of pets in North America, and other instances of food and toothpaste tampering, China’s vitamin producers are reaching out to reassure U.S. consumers that their vitamins are safe.
Whether that’s true isn’t clear, however. Foreign food-safety experts say China’s larger companies have reputations to protect. The question is how they maintain quality control.

A survey earlier this year said more than three-fifths of Chinese worry about whether the food they eat is contaminated or adulterated.
Fake drugs to treat impotency and help with weight loss are legion in China. Some African nations complain of fake Chinese medicines hitting their pharmacy shelves. Shady small pharmaceutical firms have exported bogus anti-malaria medication to Southeast Asia, where the illness is prevalent, allowing sick people to grow sicker.
“We really believe they are criminals,” said Dr. Henk Bekedam, chief of the World Health Organization office in China, referring to producers of fake medicines.

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