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China Pledges to Improve Food Safety

Pet Food, Toothpaste Scares Hit Home

By Lisa Wade McCormick
ConsumerAffairs.com

June 21, 2007

Li Pingjun, chief of China’s National Standardization Management Commission, told reporters that his country will speed up revisions to its national and industry standards on farm produce and processed foods, according to a story on the Central People’s Government of the People’s Republic of China Web site.

Liu said China had 1,965 national food safety standards at the end of 2006. Of that number, he said, 634 were mandatory. The standards have an average age of 12 years, he said.

Liu said his country will also work to keep its standards up to date, make sure none of them are more than four-and-a-half years old by the end of 2010, and ensure that domestic food safety meets international standards, the Central People Government reported.

China has come under international fire in recent months for exporting melamine-tainted -- and mislabeled -- wheat gluten, corn gluten, and rice protein concentrate to the United States and South Africa.

Melamine is a chemical used to make plastics and fertilizers. It is not approved for use in human or pet food.

The FDA discovered melamine in those ingredients, which are used to make pet food and pet food products. Since the FDA made that discovery in March 2007, scores of companies have recalled more than 5,600 pet food products in the United States.

The tainted ingredients are blamed for the illnesses and deaths of thousands of pets nationwide and South Africa.

The FDA traced the tainted ingredients to two companies in China -- Xuzhou Anying Biologic Technology Development Co. and Binzou Futian Biology Technology Co. Those companies are now closed.

Contaminated Toothpaste

The FDA recently banned Chinese toothpastes from the United States after learning 51 residents of Panama died from using Chinese-imported cough syrup that contained DEG.

The agency, however, found toothpaste containing DEG at a Dollar Plus store in Miami. That toothpaste was sold under the brand name ShiR Fresh. The FDA also reported that nine other brands of toothpastes contained DEG, and warned the products had a "low but meaningful risk of toxicity and injury," especially when used by children or individuals with kidney or liver disease.

The FDA said the brands of Chinese-toothpaste that contain DEG include: Cooldent Fluoride; Cooldent Spearmint; Cooldent ICE; Dr. Cool, Everfresh Toothpaste; Superdent Toothpaste; Clean Rite Toothpaste; Oralmax Extreme; Oral Bright Fresh Spearmint Flavor; Bright Max Peppermint Flavor; ShiR Fresh Mint Fluoride Paste; DentaPro; DentaKleen; and DentaKleen Junior.

The agency said its inspectors identified and detained one shipment of toothpaste at the U.S. border, containing about 3 percent DEG by weight.

An investigation by ConsumerAffairs.com recently discovered 17 tubes of illegally imported toothpaste at discount stores in the Washington-DC area. The tubes were all manufactured in other countries and not intended for sale in the U.S.

One of those tubes came from China.

Safety Scares

China has also had its share of food safety scares.

The most recent scare happened earlier this month when Chinese officials discovered a company in the central Anhui Province had repackaged for sale more than two tons of rice dumplings that were two years old.

Despite that finding, China’s Ministry of Agriculture said the overall quality of the country’s agricultural products is improving, according to the Central People Government.

The ministry reported that 90 percent of vegetables, meat, and fish tested in major cities met the country’s food safety standards. It also reported that all the meat tested in 25 major cities, including Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, and Shenyang, met safety standards.

The quality of vegetables in 37 major cities also reached 94 percent in terms of pesticide residues -- the "highest rate in recent years" -- the ministry said.

The ministry, however, reported that it discovered malachite green -- a synthetic dye used to treat fungal infections on fish eggs -- in some aquiculture products. Malachite green is considered dangerous for humans, the ministry said.

Chinese officials promised to intensify its quality-control monitoring of farm products in production bases, wholesale markets, agricultural trading markets and supermarkets, the government’s Web site reported.

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