With all the China-based product recalls in the media lately, that country is at least presenting the appearance of trying to rectify safety issues from manufacturers there. As such, China has now pinpointed a list of unsafe products sitting on shelves in many Wal-Mart stores. Carrefour stores in Europe are also affected.

After making a 'safety sweep' of Beijing marketplaces recently, the Chinese government listed out a whole new list of toys this week. But, too little too late (which is a good thing).

Wal-Mart said that the data released by the Chinese government was at least a few months old, and the referenced children's toys had already been removed from store shelves. Time is of the essence here, but I guess that's somewhat meaningless when it actually comes from within China.

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China and the U.S. continue to go round and round based on multiple Chinese-based food and product ingredient recalls in the last year, and one good thing is that the amount of safety awareness this recall situation has caused can only serve to make things better in the future. At least, I hope.

China just said this past week that it will start to "clamp down" on foods contaminated with dangerous industrial chemicals (among other things) in the wake of a global backlash currently underway concerning the level of quality coming from that country as it relates to food and other products.

Has the "Made in China" label suffered in the last 12 months? Of course -- quality control is under review in the world's most populous country like never before, and many nations are learning that the cheaper-than-cheap commodity prices and manufacturing practices in China come at a price -- a large price.

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The war has begun. Well, the war of words with China, that is. The country has had its name dragged through the mud in the most recent 12 months, with product recalls stemming from toothpaste to food to lead paint on toys. Since it was being battered in the media all over the world, I guess the best defense was a goofy offense for the country.

State media today released information the indicated it had found microscopic worms in wooden packaging from the U.S. In addition, health authorities even said that substandard U.S. vitamin pills had been discovered as well.

So now, the order of the day is to inspect all items from any country. It's probably quite true that food-related imports from almost any country would have some minor level contamination. I'm not defending U.S. producers here, but an attempt by China to overshadow massive quality problems there won't work here. Nice try.

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Will this Chinese recall situation ever end? Well, not today. In the latest edition, a factory in the Chinese capital of Beijing apparently recycled used chopsticks -- to the tune of 100,000 pairs per day -- without properly disinfecting them. Nice, huh?

It's hard to say how used chopsticks were not immediately outed as being used (unless the initial owners left no teeth marks), but in an age of recalls that included pet food, medicine, tires, toothpaste and toys, I guess eating utensils was just the next step.

China's immense growth apparently has led to a complete oversight of inspections for goods as the company marches toward becoming the second-largest exporter in the world behind the U.S.

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In a move many will call long overdue, a contingent of U.S. food experts arrived in China yesterday to try and understand why there have been so many problems with food items and ingredients sourced from China that have resulted in numerous food recalls in the U.S. recently.

It's hard to know if the delegates will find anything that can be fixed regarding exported food items from China, but with industrial chemicals making their way into pet food last year (which ignited everything), some serious issues must have been happening there. Bacteria is one thing, but solvents and toxic chemicals ending up in the food supply is no small matter.

Add to that the same (and more) chemicals being found in products like toothpaste, cough syrup and fish and it's understandable why sudden scrutiny is happening. Do you trust Chinese ingredients in the food product you eat?

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