CALIFORNIA

Spinach recall prompts call for better oversight on food

FRESNO — Consumer advocates and some lawmakers say a Salinas Valley company's recall of spinach because of a salmonella scare shows that the government must do more to protect the food supply, but industry officials call it proof that their voluntary regulations are working.

Metz Fresh, a King City-based grower and shipper, recalled 8,000 cartons of fresh spinach Wednesday after salmonella was found during a routine test. More than 90 percent of the cartons never reached stores, spokesman Greg Larson said.

California's leafy greens industry adopted the voluntary regulations last year after a fatal E. coli outbreak, but advocates said a national mandatory inspection and testing program is needed.

Some growers said Metz Fresh's ability to catch the bacteria showed the testing regimes are working. No illnesses were reported from spinach linked to the grower.

WASHINGTON, D.C.

U.S. believed partly to blame for unsafe Chinese products

Most Americans say the United States bears at least some blame for the rash of unsafe products from China, according to an Associated Press-Ipsos poll released Thursday.

With the tally of Chinese goods bearing high levels of chemicals and toxics growing almost daily, people in the survey reserved the bulk of their ire for Chinese companies. About 64 percent said Chinese firms making the tainted products deserve a lot of the responsibility.

Even so, there was widespread consensus that plenty of blame can be spread on both sides of the Pacific. Eighty-four percent said Chinese manufacturers and the U.S. businesses that sell Chinese products in this country deserve some or a lot of culpability for the problem. In addition, while 79 percent said the Chinese government bears at least some fault, 75 percent said the same about the U.S. government.

Freddie Mac profit drops; mortgage credit losses blamed

Freddie Mac, the nation's second-largest buyer and guarantor of home mortgages, said Thursday that its second-quarter profit fell 45 percent as it had to record larger provisions on its books for bad loans.

The McLean, Va.-based company said it recorded a $320 million provision for credit losses due to problems with loans originated this year and last year, amid a deepening mortgage crisis nationwide that has bankrupted more than 50 lenders.

While its losses from defaulted loans are worsening, they are still below average, Chief Financial Officer Buddy Piszel said.

The government-sponsored company said it earned $764 million, or $1.02 per share, for the three months that ended June 30, contrasting with profit of $1.4 billion, or $1.93 a share, a year ago. Revenue rose 4.8 percent to $2.26 billion from $2.15 billion in the quarter a year ago.