Avoiding 'Made in China' Labels Not Easy

Shoppers look through the frozen foods section at the Acme supermarket store in Lawrenceville, N.J., in this March 13, 2007 file photo. U.S. shoppers may be forgiven if they are becoming leery of Chinese-made goods and are trying to fill their grocery carts with foods free of ingredients from that country. The trouble is, that may be almost impossible. (AP Photo/Mel Evans, file) (Mel Evans - AP)

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. -- Poisoned pet food. Seafood laced with potentially dangerous antibiotics. Toothpaste tainted with an ingredient in antifreeze. Tires missing a key safety component. U.S. shoppers may be forgiven if they are becoming leery of Chinese-made goods and are trying to fill their shopping carts with products free of ingredients from that country. The trouble is, that may be almost impossible.

Chinese exports have been in the spotlight since the deaths of dogs and cats in North America attributed to tainted Chinese wheat gluten, followed by this week's recall of Chinese-made radial tires and an alert Thursday by the Food and Drug Administration, warning about contaminated Chinese seafood.

My family hit some stores to see how hard it would it be for the average consumer to avoid the "Made in China" label _ even for just a week.

My sons' well-worn sneakers were starting to resemble sandals, so our family headed to the Empire Mall in Sioux Falls in search of a couple of cheap pairs to get the boys, ages 10 and 12, through the summer.

The quest began in the J.C. Penney shoe department. We soon found out this was going to be no easy task: Adidas, made in China; Sketchers, made in China; Reebok, made in China.

We finally found some New Balance shoes and I recalled reading that the company still makes some running shoes in the United States. The first few said "Made in China," but we then spotted three adult styles marked "Made in the USA of imported materials."

That sounded as close as we could get, so I asked my 12-year-old which of the three he liked.

"This one," he said, pointing to the $75 shoe he'll likely outgrow in months.

"Let's keep looking," I said.

We headed to a couple of other shoe stores _ Famous Footwear and Payless _ and found several other styles of sneakers mostly made in China.

Famous Footwear had one U.S.-made New Balance sneaker on sale for $40, but my oldest didn't like the color combination so we moved on. I guess those well-worn sneakers can last another week until this little experiment ends.

To be sure, some of the products were made in other Asian nations _ including Indonesia _ but their exports have not been called into question as China's have.