China dismisses foreign reports of unsafe exports as 'sensationalist'

China dismisses foreign reports of unsafe exports as 'sensationalist'

	Published : Thu, 31 May 2007 12:51 By : Agencies Print this Story

BEIJING (XFN-ASIA) - The government brushed off mounting concerns about its food and drug safety controls, calling foreign reports about dangerous Chinese exports 'sensationalist.'

'China has a very good system for ensuring food safety, especially food for export,' Li Yuanping, a director-general of China's quality control watchdog told reporters.

Li said that from 2004 to 2006 at least 99 pct of Chinese-approved food products exported to the United States passed muster, equal to or slightly better than the success rates of American products imported to China.

'(Recent media reports) are merely playing up the matter with sensationalism,' he said.

Li spoke during a press conference held to announce the results of probes into reports that the dangerous chemical diethylene glycol originating in China had turned up in products exported to Latin America.

In neither case were the Chinese companies involved to blame for endangering public health, said Wei Chuanzhong, vice minister of the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine.

Wei said China's investigation exonerated a Chinese company that exported the toxin in 2003. It was later used in cough syrup that reportedly caused dozens of deaths in Panama.

Wei said the overseas companies that bought the substance misused it, thinking it was glycerine, a widely used sweetener.

In the other case, toothpaste produced by two companies in eastern China contained levels of the toxin that were not harmful to humans, Wei said.

The toothpaste was exported to Panama, with some then re-exported to the Dominican Republic. No reports of poisoning from the toothpaste have yet surfaced.

However, Wei said China would continue to work to strengthen its quality control systems.

'The Chinese government is stepping up regulation and supervision to protect the health and safety of the general population,' he said.

Chinese products have caused a series of recent health scares, including the deaths of thousands of US dogs and cats suspected to have died from pet food contaminated by ingredients imported from China.

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